The Dragon Queen's Mate
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: This is my first HTTYD story so please be kind. She was the last of her kind, a human/dragon hybrid. The mother of most of all dragon kind. Upon awakening from her long sleep finds herself in heat and in desperate need of a mate. Hiccup/OC story. Rated M for a reason. let me know what you think.
1. Chapter 1

**Yo- everyone. My name is baby-kitsune9 and I am a huge, huge fan of HTTYD. Which is why I plan to try my hand at writing my own story.**

 **It'll be a Hiccup/OC pairing.**

 **And hopefully it'll be interesting since I'm going to try my hand at explaining why Toothless is the only Nightfury left a little later on in the story.**

 **It'll take place around the timeline of Race to Dragon's Edge when Hiccup is almost in his later teens. I need to remind everyone that there was no known age of consent when it came to sex. **

**Hiccup is a Viking, and as such he was probably used to taking what he wanted- though unlike others he practiced a great deal of restraint.**

 **So without further adieu, and just a quick warning that this will be M rated for a reason.**

 **Enjoy!**

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Hot.

It was so hot. Feverish glowing teal eyes slowly fluttered open for what must have been the umpteenth time in the past few days. Consciousness warring with unconsciousness and the discomfort twisting and clawing away at her insides as she shifted her weight slightly.

Her pale, slender, humanesque body struggling to get comfortable despite the nearly unbearable heat of the cavern she resided in. A soft groan of irritation making it's way past pale trembling pink lips as her large black wings flared for a moment before wrapping back around her naked body. The soft buttery feel of the leather like skin was cool against the rest of her body.

So much so that she almost breathed a soft sigh in relief.

 _Almost_ of course being the operative word.

She was in heat again. She recognized the signs easily enough since her awakening almost a year ago. Usually she simply slept through the whole bothersome thing- disliking the chaos that soon followed it's wake. And by chaos, she meant of course her many, many hatchlings.

All dragons of different species.

All born of her unnatural womb. In her cavern like home which was littered with countless dead animal bones and eggs shell. All of them her children.

She mused to herself with a slightly strained sounding half laugh as she thought of her last clutch of eggs. A batch of precious little Sea Shockers. Who by now were probably all grown up- due mostly to the fact that dragon's didn't age normally compared to most beasts.

No, her little one's usually aged ten years in the first three weeks or so after their hatching. Mostly due to the fact that they were predator's who were at the top of the food chain. And why you ask was that?

Because they didn't stay babies for long before they became dangerous and feral.

How else could they remain at the top of the food chain if they could easily be picked off?

Why with her last clutch, just to make sure that they could properly defend themselves, she had spent a great deal of time in the nearby sea water's. Training them on how to use their abilities. And then once she was absolutely certain that her babies would be able to take care of themselves- she had sent them off with a few motherly chirps of affection. Reminding her darlings that no matter how old they got, if they ever wished to visit her- she would be in their old home.

Waiting.

But her little darlings never returned with the exception of one or two who simply couldn't shake the maternal bond that she shared with them. Why one or two of them had even brought their mates to visit her while on their way to migrate and lay their eggs.

Imagine how proud- and dare she say it- just a tad bit depressed she had been upon learning of her future grand- _eh..._ She thought as she cut her mind off there. She was still a young beast. There was no real way that she was going to accept the fact that she was a grand- meh.

There she went again.

Growling softly in annoyance at her train of thought, she slowly rolled over onto her side and then pushed herself up until she was in a better position to carefully get to her feet. Her wings still wrapped securely around her pale naked body as she made her way, tiredly and on slightly unsteady feet towards the opening in the cavern that led to outside.

It was late.

Sometime between sunset and night if the multi colored hues painting the sky overhead was any indication at all. And since she was awake and in heat, she supposed that she should go and see if she could at least find herself a mate before she became frenzied.

Which was a state of mind that only dragon females reached during their heat.

And the best way to describe the feeling was more or less saying that there was an utter loss of control and her carnal desires would force her to accept any male, dragon or otherwise, whether she wished too or not. During which time she would be mindless and incapable of breaking the frenzies grip over her until she was 1) impregnated again. Or 2) Found her one true mate to satisfy her.

But after countless eon's of living, she doubted that her one true mate even existed.

Exhaling the fresh clean air as she moved to the small clearing just shy of her cavern, she let her body stretch for the first time in what felt like centuries. And in all probability possibly had been. She took a moment to work the kinks out of her neck and spine as her mane of thick jet black hair fell well past her hips, and over her slender shoulders, as her bangs fell fetchingly around her lovely, delicate, almost elfish face.

Her long pointed black and blue scale tipped ears listening for anything that might draw her attention. After all it had been quite some time since she had bothered to really step foot out into the open like this, and she knew that time often caused changes to land masses, plant life, inhabitability and so on.

So she wanted to be prepared for almost anything she may come across as she listened for several moments before picking up the heart beats of several large animals.

Frowning a bit, she listened harder and was happy to know that several of those animals were dragons. She could tell by the sounds of the various growls, chirps, and roars coupled with the sound of their wings and tails slicing through the air.

 _How interesting_ , she mused as she listened a little more. Feeling a bit like a curious little hatchling as she did so. She hadn't expected there to be so many of them in one place. In fact if anything, she had expected her offspring to stay true to their instincts and live in various places where there was more plentiful food, water and grounds for nesting.

But for some particular reason, they were all living together like a group.

How peculiar. She thought to herself as she flared her wings, letting them stretch to their full length of well over twelve feet, with about an equal width to them and quickly took to the sky- intending to go and greet her long lost offspring and entice one to act as her mate.

Not realizing that her children were in the company of strange creatures that by all rights should have been their enemies, but were now their good friends and companions...

Creatures better known as, _humans_.


	2. Chapter 2

Hiccup was tying to sit through another ridiculous meeting with his fellow dragon riders when as usual, Ruffnut and Tuffnut began to fight amongst themselves. Which inevitably drew Snotlout into the fight, which pissed Astrid off. And therefore had given him one hell of a headache.

And why were he and his dragon rider's putting up with this nonsense (up until the fist fight at least)? Well, it had to do with their dragons. For the last few days, their scaly friends had had to be separated.

Males away from the females. With of course the exception of Ruffnut and Tuffnut's dragon which was both _male_ and _female_ at the same time and therefore couldn't be separated by conventional means.

Which was why the two headed dragon had had to be muzzled and both heads tied to opposite ides of the pin that it was in to keep both of the heads from injuring the other any more than they already had.

Whereas the rest of the dragons, had merely been separated by being locked in makeshift pins in different areas of Dragon's Edge.

Hiccup however had had a hell of a time trying to keep Toothless locked up, seeing as he was by far the most clever and powerful dragon on the blasted island, the Nightfury had simply burned down his pen several times. And after about the tenth pin fire, Hiccup had merely sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration and simply let his dragon wander free as long as he stayed away from the pins of the other dragons.

Especially since the last thing any of them needed was to see the Nightfury trying to mount Astrid's dragon again.

That had been mortifying and traumatizing on so many levels for the young chieftain in training.

Especially since he had never imagined that something like that would happen with any of their dragon's. It wasn't their known mating season/season's. And each species had it's own unique customs for breeding.

Ways to attract mates, and then the mating itself as well as any noted changes in the personalities of the beasts once mating occurred as well as after since some dragon's mated for life while others didn't due to their predatory instincts being bad for little hatchlings since the adult males tended to eat their offspring either before or after they hatched.

Upsetting the females, who them attacked and fought to protect the rest of their clutch from being dinner.

It was understandable. Hiccup reasoned to himself as he and Fishlegs had explained to the others just _why_ they were having to lock up their dragons to keep them away from each other.

For safety reasons, they absolutely could not allow their dragon's to mate with one another. Not if the males would begin chowing down on the eggs and upset the females.

Besides, he had thought that Toothless was still technically a baby like some of the other dragon's were. So why the heck had he been acting so odd?

The only answer that either he or Fishlegs could come up with was a theory about a local dragon female having gone into heat and as such her pheromones were so strong that they were affecting their friends.

It wasn't much to go on given how many dragon's lived on Dragon's Edge with them now, but at least it was something. So after informing the other's of their theory and telling them why their winged babies had to be locked up- they had been attempting to come up with a plan to search out and find said female so that they could temporarily relocate her and get their dragon's back to normal.

However due to the lateness of the hour, adjourned the meeting and sent his fellow riders to get some rest for the night. Figuring that they could begin their hunt early tomorrow as long as there was no more dragon related incidents.

Walking into his hut, he absently noted that Toothless was snoozing fairly peacefully on his perch in the rafters. Obviously not bothered much by the fact that Hiccup had more or less sealed him up in his hut. Though the teen would have to admit, he sort of expected his Nightfury to be pissed at how Hiccup had separated him from his potential mate earlier in the day.

In fact Hiccup had expected one of two possible outcomes for separating Toothless from Stormfly and locking him in his hut.

1) He had expected his hut to be a pile of ashes upon his return. And 2) In not a pile of ashes then he at least expected Toothless to trash his home in the usual fashion.

You know, little bits and pieces of broken wooden furniture, the floors to have little pits from his fiery breath, his bed and furs to be shredded.

As said before, the usual.

However Toothless had done none of those things. Which meant either he didn't have the energy too, or he simply didn't care too at that very moment.

Which could become problematic if he was waiting to trash the hut later on. Especially since they were still on alert due to the dragon hunters that had moved into the area. Moving quietly so that he didn't disturb Toothless, Hiccup made his way around his bedroom, carefully unbuckling and stripping off his armor and handmade leather and dragon scale shirt, he lay each item aside on his bedside table for further use on the morrow.

And once finished he then leaned down and pulled off his prosthetic leg and then set it aside in it's protective case, and then stretched out on his back on his bed with an arm thrown over his face and sighed. God he was tired. The past few days events had certainly proven to be.

What with the dragon hunters on the loose. Their dragon's going stir crazy. And Snotlout and the twins usually fighting tooth and nail for some dumb reason or another.

Driving him, Astrid, and Fishlegs absolutely crazy with the urge to throttle the lot of them.

Yawning, Hiccup began to feel himself doze off. And was only vaguely aware of the fact that his hut door softly opened and closed. Yet at that exact moment, couldn't really bring himself to care enough to see if Toothless was still present or not.

And in doing so, sealed his fate.

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When she came across the peculiar structure, she wasn't all that bothered by it. If anything it made a rather interesting sight. Much like the various animals running about in the pins, and the wild dragons flying and fluttering about the place.

But more than that, was the sight of the two legged pale creatures that gave her a vague sense of... _familiarity_. She knew these pale creatures. She was reminded of their existence every time she saw her reflection.

But it had been ages since she had last interacted with their kind. Several hundred years in fact.

 _I wonder how they have changed since those dark days._ She wondered to herself as she hovered over the stone, wood and metal structure that the human's had created for themselves, their animals and their...dragons? Wait a second, last she knew- humans and dragon's were at war with one another.

 _This might actually be in need of investigating._

Watching the creatures as each of them headed into what she could only assume was their living quarters.

She continued to ride the air currents until all of them were inside and then slowly descended down to the structure where she carefully landed on what appeared to be a wooden bridge of sorts and then carefully folded her wings and looked around for a second just to make sure that she wouldn't be noticed.

And then began walking in one of the directions that one of the humans had taken. She found herself outside of the living quarters that she had seen an auburn haired male walk into, and carefully inspected the opening so that she could slip in and study the male's dwelling.

Hopefully without being noticed, and once she was sure that she could slip inside easily enough, reached out a small hand and placed it against the door and gently pushed it until it opened a sliver until she was able to quietly slip inside. Excited by the prospect of being able to observe a human up close, she paused in the doorway to breathe in deep- every scent present in the living quarters.

And automatically froze upon taking in the slightly soft smell of one of her own kind.

 _What the- How is that even possible?_ She wondered briefly as she scanned the room for any signs of said 'other' since as far as she knew she was the absolute last of her kind. So why was she picking up the scent of another of her kind? And a male no less?

Moving away from the door, she tried to ignore the possible life altering ramifications of finding a male of her kind and walked into what looked like the den where there, in the middle of the room, settled atop of a mountain of sweet smelling straw and fur.

The male was making low rumbling sounds, indicating sleep. Or at the very least a state of rest.

Attempting to ignore the sudden ache in her lower body, as well as the chill that raced down her spine as she drew closer to the male and began to carefully study him. He was young for a human, barely a man really. But close enough to the human age of maturity for him to appeal to her in her current state.

He was lean, slightly muscled for his height and weight. Yet pleasantly easy on the eyes with his lightly tan skin and shoulder length auburn hair with two thin braids hanging over one of his broad shoulders.

All in all he was...a wonderful surprise. And the scent that she had picked up on before, emanated from him as he continued to rumble softly as she carefully and cautiously placed her hands on his bed and leaned over him a little bit and sniffed him. All but burying her face against his neck.

He smelled good. Like spices, and leather. But most of all, he smelled _ripe_.

And he was now hers for the taking.


	3. Chapter 3

**Okay-**

 **I'm placing a little lemon warning here about this chapter since I don't want to hear anyone bitch later on about how I should change it.**

 **Nor am I going to explain anything about the why of this chapter. Just try to understand that it is necessary and enjoy the story.**

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 _The first time it happened, Hiccup believed it to be nothing but a very vivid dream. He was after all a healthy adult male. And he'd had such dreams before. But never before had they been like this. It was simply too vivid to be just another dream and yet-_

 _His heart thudded in his chest as he felt a warm mouth kiss, lick and nip it's way from his collar bone down, down to his navel. "Mmn..." He moaned and nearly jumped out of his skin when said mouth's tongue, dipped into his belly button. Driving him crazy and nearly making him cum in his pants._

 _Feeling a slight tug on his pants, Hiccup tightly gripped his bedding in his hands as his lower body was exposed to the air and said mouth continued to torture him as it went lower. Small sharp teeth biting his hip lightly, as if to test the bone beneath his skin before moving on to his hardened shaft._

 _A small delicate hand wrapping around his throbbing organ, slowly pumping it, causing him to buck his hips, desperate for release. Little did he know that he would get his release in another few minutes once his unknown partner finished playing with him._

 _He panted as his partner's wicked mouth did such wonderful things to him. Bringing him close to the edge several times before backing off. And finally when he could take no more and was about to scream, he felt it then. A slight weight pressing down on him while small hands braced against his chest. Silky whisps of something that could only be thick long hair, brushing against his skin sensually as he felt his shaft being engulfed in a slick warm passage._

 _Unable to stand it anymore, he growled low in his throat and grabbed his partner- he didn't know where- and bucked his hips, forcing her to take him completely in one go._

 _He heard a startled half cry, half gasp escape her and stilled for a moment. Wondering briefly if he had perhaps hurt her in his feverish attempt to seek relief from her tight, slick passage._

 _She made a soft, breathless sound that he took as the green light to continue as he slightly lifted her up and then brought her back down on him as he bucked his hips again. Forcing another gasp from her as he bit his lower lip to keep himself from grinning in his sleep._

 _Oh this was nice. Definitely one of the most detailed wet dreams he'd ever had._

 _Curious to see if he could hold onto it until he at least reached his peak, he continued moving under his partner until he almost reached his climax. It was then that his dream girl decided to bury her face against his throat. Her breath warm and moist against his sweaty skin as he began to lick along his neck._

 _First along his jugular, then a little to the side, tracing the veins in his neck with her tongue before she opened her mouth and suddenly bit down, hard. Her sharp little teeth sinking into his skin painfully, forcing a shout from his throat as he spilled himself in her warmth._

 _And then he knew nothing more_.

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Feeling the male's seed filling her, she slowly and carefully released his neck knowing that if she didn't her kind would loose yet another of their treasured brethern. Her male had strangely never woken like most seasoned males would have.

Which meant that her male had possibly been an innocent.

And while that sort of bothered her a little bit, at the same time it made her proud to know that she had been his first. She lay quietly on top of him for a while, their bodies still joined as she listened to his heartbeat as she recalled mating with several dozen human's or so during her youth.

She had still been very young and relatively innocent then. And the matings had hardly been favored by offspring. Though there had been one or two males that had managed to do what the other's hadn't. And she had spent over a year in a half carrying their young before birthing them. And when she had, they had been born without eggs to protect them, their lungs had taken their first breaths and their cries had nearly deafened her.

And then they had been handed to her to be inspected...

She hadn't understood what that meant exactly. So their father's had had to show her. Explaining that she should look for imperfections that would make her children weak.

Which she had found offensive since no child of hers could possibly be weak or imperfect.

But she had been wrong. So, so very wrong.

Her son's. Her precious little joy's had been raised as humans by their fathers when they should have rightfully lived in both worlds- and had hunted and killed thousands of their fellow siblings before she had had to step in and stop them. And by then, her son's had been unrecognizable to her as the children she had birthed so many, many years ago.

They had been men. Human's.

Nightmares to all dragon kind.

And that dark day she had soaked her hands in their blood knowing that because of the fact that two had managed to marry and have children that she may one day be forced to step in and soak her hands in the blood of his children's children.

However to date that thankfully hadn't happened.

And her children's children had grown, married and began to breed little families of their own. Families that she had attempted several times over the decades to keep track of. In fact the last time she had awakened had been well over fifteen years ago during her last heat.

And before returning to her cavern to sleep she had sought out her children's children. Tracking the human's by the diluted scent of her own dragon/human scent, and had found that some of her former offspring's children still remained. And were quite the hearty bunch.

She had even come face to face with her great, great, great, great, great... _meh_. Something or another, better known as Stoick. And his young son, Hiccup.

Slowly pushing herself upright, she carefully removed herself from her mate's warm embrace and climbed off of the bed knowing that she had stayed for far too long. Staying any longer meant running the risk of discovery and possible capture. Besides, she had gotten what she came for.

Looking over at the young male, she wished that she didn't need to leave him. Her instinct was pretty much telling her to stick around, but that was probably because her heat wouldn't end for another week or so and she would need to visit her chosen male as often as possible.

But for the time being, she needed to leave and maybe go clean out her cavern. After all, bones and egg shells weren't good for little humans.

They tended to injure them, badly. And she couldn't have that if she was going to be birthing more human offspring. Her instinct to nurture and protect the little one's simply wouldn't allow it.

Folding her wings around her body for a moment, she began to move towards the door when she noticed glowing yellow green eyes up in the rafters over head and blinked her eyes at the large male Nightfury staring back at her with a somewhat peeved look on his face.

"Have you been there the whole time?" She asked, her soft voice barely above a whisper as the dragon let out a low rumbling growl of annoyance in response.

She smiled at him and beckoned him to come down from his perch so that she could better see him. After all the last Nightfury that she had ever encountered had been the first dragon that she had taken as her mate when she had gone into her very first heat well over a thousand years or so ago.

The dragon huffed but climbed down as she bid him, for some reason he simply wasn't able to disobey her request. Once he was down and settled himself into a sitting position, Toothless stared at the unknown female. Taking in her slender, almost waif-like build, her pretty elfish face framed by a thick mane of long silky straight hair that hung well past her hips.

She had wings. Big, black, leathery skinned wings.

 _Strange for a human_. Toothless thought to himself as he watched her slowly move in closer to him and felt her gently lay a hand on his nose as she softly cooed, "Aren't you a beauty."

He wasn't vain enough to respond to her words about him. He did however after living several years among the humans, understand the true meaning of beauty. And the one standing before him was a beauty in every true sense of the word. Perhaps that was why she had chosen his friend and companion as her mate.

Either way, he was going to have his work cut out for him. What with his usual perchance to keep his friend from harm and with the new and interesting idea that he would need to help Hiccup care for his mate since he possibly wouldn't have a clue about how to care for her.


	4. Chapter 4

Toothless followed his rider's mate out of the hut after speaking with her a while. His heart squeezing painfully in his chest as he realized just what- or rather _who_ the female he was speaking too was.

She was Skye, the eternal one. The queen mother of all dragon kind.

On one hand, or should he say claw- he was happy to know that the one who had borne himself and all of his kind still walked the earth. After all, without her- dragon's would all die out and perish since their lives were directly tied to her own. And while that was an inevitability further on in the future.

He wasn't worried since as the queen mother of their race, she wasn't likely to let them all die easily. After all, her maternal instincts towards his kind dictated that when the time came to sever their bond- she would do so regardless of whether it meant spending the rest of her unnatural days in agony or not.

Sitting several inches away from Skye and watched as she flared her wings and prepared to take to the sky's for which she was named, but stopped at the last second and turned to him to ask if he wished to fly with her to her cavern. So that if anything should happen to Hiccup, he could either come and get her or bring the young human to her right away.

Toothless believed it would be nice to follow her on a little flight, however the fact that he couldn't fly well without Hiccup's help held him back. After all, without his tail fin he couldn't fly very far, or high for that matter. At least not without crashing and hurting himself.

Feeling her lower her wings rather than seeing her do so- she walked over to him and lightly touched the place behind his ear, that Hiccup usually touched in an effort to get his attention. Turning his head to look at her, she asked him what was wrong.

 _Why did he not answer his queen mother?_

Turning to face her again, he nuzzled her small hand and explained his problem to her thinking that she would become angry and leave. But instead she merely gave him a thoughtful look for a moment before asking if she could see his tail fin.

Curious to know what she wished to see, he lifted his tail and brought it up for her to see and watched as she took a moment to study the leather fin that Hiccup had invented for him so that he could fly again. And after a moment or so, carefully removed the leather fin so that she could better study his wound before chirping at him and telling him that his tail fin could be fixed.

Looking at her as if she were one of the twins trying to Loki day him, Toothless let out a growl of disbelief when he suddenly felt his queen mother's hand lightly touch the old injury and growled in warning at her since the area, though several years old, was still sensitive to the touch and the last thing he needed was to last out and bite Skye like he had Snotlout the first and last time that he had dared to touch his precious tail there.

Especially since he had nearly taken the oaf's damned arm off at the shoulder.

He nearly jerked his tail from Skye's grasp when he noted that she wasn't paying attention to his warning. And that's when he _felt_ and _saw_ it. The soft blue-ish purple glow emanating from her hands as his tail began to tingle and grow warm under her palms, and he could feel his bone and skin _stretching_. Reforming.

 _Reconstructing_ his lost tail fin right before his eyes.

Once done, his queen mother stepped back away from him with a smile and chirped at him to try out his new tail fin. Causing him to look anxiously from her to his tail and then back again, carefully weighing the pros and cons before flaring his wings and then looking back at her and chirping for her to follow him a little ways.

Just in case he fell when he was a bit into his flight.

Skye chirped at him and leaned in to kiss his scaly skin, just under his left eye and then stood back a bit and unfolded her wings and waited patiently for him to take to the sky before following suite.

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Hiccup awoke in the early morning hours still feeling groggy and lethargic from his dream 'activities' and rolled over onto his side to rest a minute or so more before he bothered to fully awake. Vaguely aware of the sensation of his fur bedding brushing up against his bare ski-

 _Wait a second_ , He thought as he suddenly bolted upright in his bed in alarm. All previous warm and fuzzy feelings gone from his sluggish mind as he looked down at himself in confusion.

Why on earth was he naked? And when exactly during the night had it happened? He wondered as he looked around for his missing clothing and finally found it...shredded on the floor almost (and yet not completely) stuffed under his bed. Almost as if someone had nudged it there after ripping it to pieces.

Scowling, he reached down and tentatively picked up his leather pants and held them up in front of his face to study the tattered article of clothing and frowned at the obvious slash marks that could only be made by very small, yet insanely sharp claws.

And then looked around for Toothless in the hopes that he could perhaps tell him something, but found the rafters strangely empty.

And his dragon gone.


	5. Chapter 5

After ransacking his own room to find another pair of leather pants, Hiccup quickly donned then and ran out of his hut to fin the others. Not bothering to grab his dragon scale shirt and armor, the half naked ten ran out of his hut in search of the others.

After all, if something had happened to his dragon- chances were pretty high that something must have happened to his friend's dragons as well.

Running all the way to the pin where the other dragon's were currently being kept, he paused for a moment, breathless as Astrid came out of the pin with her dragon Stormfly, the heavy leather saddle that Gobber had made for the Nadder, carefully thrown over one of her shoulders as Stormfly followed close behind at Astrid's heels.

Stopping the second Astrid saw Hiccup in his semi state of undress and blinked at him as he walked over and asked, "Have you seen Toothless?" She and her dragon both shook their heads, slowly. Both unable to look away from the distraught young man.

Astrid staring because of his state of semi undress while Stormfly stared at the male for an entirely different reason. The bite wound on the side of his neck that was more than partially hidden by his long-ish auburn hair.

"Dammit." Hiccup growled out in frustration as he clenched his jaw and looked away from them before making a frustrated sound and moving on to go see if any of the others had seen his wayward dragon.

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Toothless lay curled up outside of Skye's cavern home, enjoying the warmth of the sun while waiting for her to return with something to eat. Apparently from what he had gleaned of their conversations, last night and well into the early morning hours- the queen mother had been sleeping for quite some time.

It had been several years since her last awakening in fact.

And no sooner had she awoken, then she had begun to go into heat. Which he supposed explained why she had come to the small area where his human and their friends lived while on the island of Dragon's Edge. Well that and sheer curiosity of course.

After all from what Skye had told him earlier- she hadn't interacted with human's for several hundred years if not longer. And one did tend to lose all concept of time and it's changes on the world around one, when one slept as often and as deeply as Skye tended too.

Speaking of...where the devil was she? She had raced off over an hour or more ago to hunt. She should have returned with at least a dozen kills by now. Toothless thought as he snapped out of his lazy mind set and got to his feet and began to walk in the direction that she had taken hours earlier.

And easily managed to find her trail by tracking her sweet scent of chamomile, honey and jasmine and after walking for about a half mile, paused when he came across what was left of a deer's, stripped and bloody carcass.

 _Well. Looks like someone was hungry_. He thought to himself as he continued on a little ways more into the thick under brush and stopped yet again when he saw several more stripped and bloody deer carcasses strewn about in a small clearing.

Quickly counting the number of carcasses lying around him, he blinked in surprise at the numbers before realizing that he needed to burn the bones so that no one- Especially one of the dragon riders, could find them and track them back to Skye since she had admitted to him before that she was a bit nervous about revealing herself to anyone but his human.

Carefully collecting the carcasses and dragging them all to the center of the clearing, he made a neat little pile and then fired a plasma blast, setting the still wet remains of Skye's breakfast ablaze.

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Three miles from Skye's cavern-

Hiccup slid off of Stormfly the moment the small dragon landed to investigate something odd.

From what Fishlegs had said while they had been flying, searching for Toothless. He had caught sight of something weird and the small group of dragon riders had decided to put the search for the Nightfury on temporary hold until after they checked out what Fishlegs had reported seeing.

Frustrated with the days turn of events, Hiccup stood with his arms crossed over his chest in vexation as Astrid and the others looked around the large clearing until Snotlout had managed to trip- literally- over what they had been looking for. And tumbled to the ground where he lay in a pool of blood for several moments before the twins found him and began screaming their heads off.

Vexation giving way to concern and then alarm- lets face it, who wouldn't be alarmed to hear two people screaming like they were being killed- Hiccup started running in the direction of the sound with Fishlegs and Astrid close behind him. Each of them covering the distance in record time before coming to a stop at the creepy sight that spread out before them.

There in the same area of bushes where Snotlout had fallen, was at least forty carcasses. Deer, wolf, boar, even large fish like shark and tuna remains were present!

Each one had been stripped of the meat an organs, leaving nothing but bloody bones behind.

Inwardly cringing at the sight, Hiccup mentally shook himself and moved to help Snotlout up off of the blood soaked ground. While Astrid did what she could to shut up the twins. After all, these were fresh kills. And whatever had done this could very well still be close by.

Especially since the last thing they needed was to be attacked by some unknown creature while Hiccup's dragon was missing. After all, that would be suicide. And Astrid, much like Hiccup an Fishlegs- had absolutely no intention of allowing themselves to be killed because of the noise the twins had made.

No way, no how- _nuh-uh_.

"What in Thor's name-" Snotlout began and was cut off when Hiccup slapped a hand over the idiot's mouth to silence him as Fishlegs knelt down next to one of the carcasses and began to study it.

"Fishlegs?" Hiccup spoke softy as his green eyes scanned the woods around them for any trace of a threat as Fishlegs stood back up and looked at him, worry evident in his expression.

"This kill is only a few minutes old." The blond said in a low tone as he began to inch his way towards his dragon, his pale blue eyes looking around nervously.

Hiccup got everyone's attention with a whistle as he removed his hand from Snotlout's mouth. He and the others were almost back to their dragon's to mount up when Toothless's black scaly head suddenly broke through the far thicket of trees.

Seeing Toothless, Hiccup froze in place and tried to get the dragon's attention.

But strangely either wasn't seen, heard, or was simply ignored by the Nightfury as he meandered out of the tree line and huffed a little bit before he began collecting the latest carcasses and putting each of them in a nice tidy pile. Not really caring that his human and their friends were watching him clean up the mess that Skye had made.

After all, even if he wanted to tell them why he was doing what he was doing, it really wasn't his place to do so. Besides, he still had to protect the queen mother. At least until she was ready to make herself known to her mate.

Besides that, this was really for the best. As long as no one knew about Skye, she couldn't be hunted down and hurt. Which he figured protected everyone from spilling blood unnecessarily.

It was a win/win for everyone.

Hiccup frowned as he watched Toothless finish piling the bloody bones in the middle of the clearing and then use a plasma blast to light them all on fire. Destroying all evidence of whatever appeared to be going on a feeding frenzy on Dragon's Edge.

Once his job was done, Toothless made his way over to his human and sat down in front of him so that he could be lectured, as usual for when he did something that the human either didn't understand or figured was wrong of him to do in the first place.

Hiccup moved to stand in front of him and glared at him for a second before his features softened and he reached out and laid his hand on Toothless's nose and petted the area as he said, "Where have you been young man?" Toothless chirped at him knowing that he could only understand specific tones and pitches when Toothless communicated with him.

"Do you have any idea what so ever as to how worried I was? How worried all of us were!" Hiccup began to rant. Toothless merely rolled his eyes at his human and then licked his hand, managing to take his rider off guard enough to end the ranting for the moment. But he had no doubt that he would be considered, what was the term?

Grounded? Until further notice.

A pity really, especially since he would have happily shown his rider where he had been if he had merely asked.


	6. Chapter 6

Later that evening shortly after sunset, Hiccup stood with his fellow dragon riders around a nice warm bonfire, courtesy of the twins dragon, speaking of their earlier sickening discovery. His green eyes flickering to Toothless who had been sulking ever since their return to the keep.

Sitting with his back to the group, Toothless was as still as a statue until their meeting was almost done. And then his Nightfury suddenly bolted upright from where he'd been slouched over, staring at the ground. His fin like black ears twitching as he got to his feet and began flaring his wings and pacing back and forth and chirping excitedly.

Turning to watch the spectacle, the group fell silent as the other dragons each ran over to where Toothless was and each began to do as he did. Pacing, flaring their wings and chirping to something hidden just beyond their human's collective sight.

"What the-"

"Dude, what's up with our dragons?" One of the twins asked, concern coloring his or her tone. Hiccup wasn't really paying attention and besides the two sounded alike almost as much as they looked alike.

"I dunno. But they wouldn't be acting like that for any old reason." Astrid said.

Hiccup walked over to the fire and grabbed a piece of wood that had yet to completely burn, and held it out in front of him as he said, "You're right. They're acting like that because something's there."

Astrid gripped her ax and quickly pulled it from it's casing as Hiccup stared towards the dragon's intending to figure out what had them so excited. And only got several steps from the bonfire when Toothless and the others quickly turned around to face them, flared their wings and bared their teeth at them in warning.

Stopping cold in mid step, the dragon rider's looked at their friends in shock and disbelief as Toothless slowly folded his wings and then sat down, his mouth closing so that he was no longer baring his fangs as he let out a series of chirps before getting up and moving further into the growing shadows so that he could blend himself in with the darkness.

"Toothless!" Hiccup called out in alarm, afraid that whatever was there just beyond their sight was somehow causing him to lose his friend- he threw down the torch that he'd been holding and took off as fast as he could after his dragon. Ignoring Astrid and the other's frantic calls for him to come back.

Moving through the darkness was tricky, but somewhere along the way his eyes managed to adjust to the lack of light. Helping him keep Toothless well within sight as he chased after him for about a mile or so before Toothless stopped moving and was sitting in a softly lit clearing, under the pale glow moonlight, Hiccup could plainly see his dragon nuzzling the small hands of what appeared to be a beautiful girl about a year or two younger than himself with long jet black hair, pale, pale skin. And she dressed in a most peculiar looking...tattered dress?

 _What the hell?_ Hiccup wondered as he slowed his movements, due to the fact that neither Toothless nor the girl seemed to realize that he was there. Slowly drawing nearer, his green eyes studying the girl as she petted his Nightfury an spoke in soft almost husky tones.

"I'm sorry about this morning. I didn't mean to get you into trouble," He heard the girl say as Toothless began to purr under her ministrations. "It wasn't too bad was it? They don't really come across as the sort to hurt their dragons."

Hiccup frowned at her words as Toothless chirped at her in response. Causing a small ghost of a smile to tug at her lips before she said, "I'm glad. But I suppose that I own you for covering for me." Confused as to what the girl meant, Hiccup stopped several feet away from the pair- far enough to still be ignored and yet close enough to run one or both down if need be- and simply listened, hoping to glean some information from the girl's one sided conversation.

"You were the one responsible for attempting to hide my kills, yes?"

Eyes widening a bit in realization that the dead animal's found earlier that day had belonged to the girl, Hiccup found himself holding his breath for a moment as he tried to think of how a human could possibly create so much carnage.

The only answer that he could come up with was that normal human's couldn't. It simply wasn't possible.

Besides, some of the animal carcasses that had been found belonged to large deep sea fish. And as far as he knew, it was impossible for humans to swim several hundred or more feet in the ocean simply to hunt and capture monsterous fish like the sharks and tuna that had been found.

Not only that but the wolves and boars of the island were known to be dangerous. If one wasn't careful when hunting them- then one could very easily wind up badly injured or dead.

Which begged the question, how had the girl done it? If she had indeed done it at all.

Especially since Toothless could easily hunt down and kill wolves, bars, sharks and tuna without breaking so much as a sweat. Well, maybe that was the wrong way to put it since dragon's didn't sweat per say.

When over exerting themselves to an extreme degree, instead of simply sweating, dragons just sort of got a weird sticky film on their scales that cause some very strange issues. Especially when the film wasn't taken care of right away.

It caused their scales to become itchy and even to come off in some places if they began to scratch, chew or rub themselves against anything.

Toothless chirped something at the girl and she gave a soft laugh that caused a strange fluttering sensation in the pit of Hiccup's stomach as his heart did a peculiar flip flop in his chest. His mouth went dry, almost as if he had been eating salt for a month, and his palms began to sweat as he let out a shaky breath. Suddenly feeling dizzy and nervous and anxious all at once and not understanding why.

The girl turned in his direction and looked at him as she picked up on his bodily responses to her presence and wondered what he was thinking as they stared at each other for a moment before he growled and ran at her. Apparently intending to attack her.

The Nightfury tensed, wondering if he should intervene and protect her, but a subtle movement of her hand caused him to stay sitting as his human attacked Skye. His arms wrapping around her slender body, picking her up as he ran until he was close enough to slam her back against the rough bark of the nearest tree as he brought one arm up to pin her in place by her chest while wrapping the fingers of his other had around her slender throat in a threatening manner.

As he glared down at her small form with an mixture of worry, anxiousness, concern, fear, anger, curiosity and frustration.

The poor thing. Skye thought as she attempted to lean forward into him a bit but stopped when she felt his fingers tighten around her neck a fraction in warning. And paused so that she could tilt her head back and look her mate fully in the face.

He was attempting to dominate her. She realized in shock after a moment or so as he pressed himself more fully against her, his frustration and curiosity finally winning out over everything else that he was presently feeling as he asked, "Why aren't you struggling?"

He possibly meant to ask her who she was or what she was doing with the Nightfury, but instead it simply came out as, 'Why aren't you struggling?'

It was as good a question as any she supposed. And while she did need to escape him- at least for the time being. The longer she felt him pressed against her, trying to dominate her... The more the need to escape him simply slipped her mind.

Not that he seemed to mind all that much. After all, he had her in his grasp. Technically speaking if she had been a normal female, she would have been utterly at his mercy. He must have had something along the same lines running through his head at the same moment too.

Because one moment he was holding her in place by her chest, and the next he slid said hand up along the gentle curve of her breast to slip his hand into her thick hair, his fingers tangling in the silken strands. Winding them around his fist as he forced her head back even farther while leaning in a bit more, nearly crushing her between the tree and his body as his face hovered a mere hairs breath from her own.

His green eyes calculating as he studied her. His breath warm against her chilled skin.

He asked- no that wasn't right- he demanded this time, to know why she wasn't struggling to escape him. She parted her lips to give him an answer when all of a sudden she felt her heat flare up again and instead of uttering a word, simply closed the distance between them and kissed his lips hungrily.

Hiccup froze.

He couldn't help it. He'd only been kissed by girls a handful of times in his young life, and had only bedded two. And non of those times had been anything like this. None of those other girls had ever caused him to feel breathless and weak in the knees like this girl was.

And her kiss- _ye gods_ , it was by far the sweetest most passionate that he had ever had.

Releasing her throat, he braced a hand on the tree trunk just above her head and pressed himself against her even more as he fought her for control of the kiss and won. Pulling back just for a second to breathe, he smirked at the beauty for a second before re capturing her mouth with his own, slanting his lips over hers as he thrust his tongue into the moist cavern of her mouth and exploring it's depths.

She made a whimpering sound in the back of her throat, soft, barely audible, and yet so very desperate. He was about to pull away from her when he felt her small hands clutching at his shoulders as one of her legs came up to wrap around his waist.

Getting a clear picture of what she wanted as well as figuring out the _why_ of her not bothering to escape earlier, Hiccup broke the kiss so that he could run his hands along her body, he cupped her breasts in his hands.

Flicking his thumbs across the sensitive little nubs resting in the middle- and never once thought to ask himself just where the hell her tattered dress had vanished too- as he teased her with well placed kisses and nips along her throat and collarbone, causing her to gasp and moan.

The sounds were oddly familiar though he thought nothing of it right then.

He kissed his way don her body as he managed to bend down just a tad and slip an arm under her bottom and lift her up just enough so that he could grind his growing erection against her while slipping a hand between their two bodies and cupping her between the legs.

Intending to prepare her when he felt her wetness against his palm and fingers and quickly took her mouth again as he used his one hand to free himself of his pants while he continued to grind against her.

By now his body was aching, and trembling slightly from his need for release. She gripped his shoulders tighter in anticipation of what was coming as he manipulated her body's responses until she was drawn as tight as a bow string about to snap.

Then and only then did he give them both what they wanted.

Hiccup normally wasn't someone who relished conquest of any kind. But this- this was different. He enjoyed conqureing her. He thought as he roughly entered her, forcing a strangled cry from her throat as he began to move within her slick heat. Each thrust of his hips causing her back to slam against the tree trunk more and more violently until she released his shoulders from the death grip that she'd had on them so that she could reach above her and place her hands against the tree trunk, arching her back-

She looked like some sort of pagan offering like this. Her flushed skin, and dark hair blending together as his lips burned a path along her skin, his blunt nails scratching at her back and shoulders. Causing her to scream and thrash slightly within his grasp. Her fingers digging into the wood of the tree until it groaned beneath her grip and almost splintered.

He reached his peak with a gasp, the pleasure overtaking him without warning as he buried his face against her breasts and shuddered in ecstasy and he spilled his seed deep within her trembling body. Once his climax was over, Hiccup felt...dizzy. Weak legged- even more so than before.

Which was _odd_ , but not totally unexpected.

And he might have fallen on his ass if not for the fact that the girl had yet to release her grip on the tree. Or to remove her legs from around his hips for that matter.

Panting from exertion, he slowly lifted his head from her breasts and looked at her.

Her eyes were closed, her soft pink lips slightly parted, and her head was thrown back- her every feature telling him that he'd pleasured her well though he couldn't really recall whether or not she had reached her peak at any point during their coupling.

As if sensing his eyes on her, she slowly opened her own to look at him as he lazily moved to kiss her on her shoulder and then her neck before taking her mouth again. This time gently as he slowly reached up to carefully pry her fingers from the tree before she wound up hurting herself.

Once her hands were no longer on the tree he brought them down so that he could look at her palms. Noting with some displeasure the broken, bleeding, red and angry looking patches of skin which he lifted to his mouth and slowly licked as if attempting to sooth the pain and discomfort that she was probably experiencing.

He needn't have bothered since her hands were numb at the moment. But despite this fact, Skye found the action oddly sweet of her mate as he finally let her hands go and straightened his spine and placed her on the ground so that he could fix his clothing and then help her find hers so that she could dress.

However by the time he finished tying the laces on his pants back up and looked at her, she had somehow managed to find and re don her tattered dress.

Frowning a bit at just how easily (and how quickly) she had managed to find her clothing and dress herself. Hiccup rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. Wondering what to do next when it occurred to him that he still didn't know who she was. Closing his eyes to try and block out the odd feeling of guilt he felt for never bothering to really get her name, he then looked at her again and tried to think of a way to broach the subject without upsetting her.

Sex he knew.

Conversation after sex- not so much.

And then there was the need to learn other things about her if he could. Like where she had come from (he and his fellow dragon riders had been sure that the island had been abandoned) at least until they had made their keep on it anyways. And then he wished to know what she had been doing with his traitorous dragon.

He paused for a second, his mind wandering into deep and very dark territory. Making him wonder if perhaps she was a dragon hunter sent to take his dragon as well as everyone else's dragon's away from them.

And wouldn't that be an weird conversation to have with everyone once he went back.

 _His guys. This is so and so. And oh yeah, the best part- I had sex with her before finding out that she was a dragon hunter. My bad._

That would go over about as well as Snotlout asking Astrid to marry him.

"So um- I- You-"

The girl must have anticipated his questions, or at the very least made an educated guess so that she could easily respond. And respond she did, her soft husky voice reaching his ears before he could even manage to get out his question.

"My name is Skye." Hiccup turned to look at her again, his eyes locking with her own peculiar colored ones as he blinked at her.

"S-Skye. That's a nice name." He said, feeling somewhat better before asking, "If you don't mind my asking, where did you come from?"

"A cavern."

"A cavern." Hiccup said doubtfully.

"Uh-huh."

Frowning at that particular reply, he tilted his head slightly as he studied her again. "Were you shipwrecked or something? How long have you been here?"

Skye smiled at him and shook her head at the first question before stating very calmly, "I don't know." To the second question.

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"I've been sleeping. So I really couldn't tell you. But from the distinct changed I've seen around the island and it's land mass, water and vegetation- I would say that I've been here for at least thirty years or so. Maybe more."

Hiccup simply stared at her, his mind not really comprehending what she had just told him. Finally after a second or so of silence, he started to open his mouth again to ask her another question when Toothless let out a low growl. Causing Hiccup to jump slightly seeing as he had forgotten that his dragon was even there, he had been so quiet.

Skye nodded at the warning that the Nightfury had just given her, and turned to look at her mate. "You're friends are coming. I must go now."

Hiccup started to ask her why, when his voice was suddenly frozen in his throat at the sight of her tattered dress unwrapping itself from her body and extending until it took the shape of- wings.

Dear god, she had wings! Hiccup thought almost frantically as he took a moment to study them before realizing that they looked exactly like a dragon's wings at the very same instant she took to the air and quickly disappeared into the very same vastness hanging over his head that she had been named for.


	7. Chapter 7

Hiccup stood with his head tilted back staring up at the sky in slack jawed disbelief. A million different questions rushing through his mind as Astrid, and the others suddenly appeared.

Sliding off of their dragon's, the dragon rider's each pulled their weapons and cautiously made their way over to their leader as Hiccup finally started to collect himself and picked his jaw up off of the ground and looked at each of them after a few seconds or so as if he was totally surprised to find them there with him.

"Hiccup? Are you okay?" Fishlegs asked warily and he fidgeted slightly. Hiccup made an inaudible sound that could have been a hum or not- as he turned his head to look at the blond teen. His green eyes blinking, but he otherwise didn't really react to anything.

Not their questions.

Not their voices.

He barely even twitched when Snotlout decided to make an attempt to snap him out of his funk, and wound up punched in the stomach. Which apparently worked since he nearly took Snotlout's head off after tackling him to the ground and delivering a few much needed punches to the bigger teen's face and body before being pulled off of him by Astrid.

Whom just glared at him for his loss of control over his temper. After all, he was better than that.

But in Hiccup's defense, after seeing what he'd just seen, and then being punched by Berk's resident bully- Snotlout had it coming. Besides, beating the crap out of the brunette had helped him sort out a few things.

The girl- er, Skye. He really should remember her name after what they had done to one another.

It was only right, after all.

Anyways, Skye had mentioned coming from a cavern. And though she never said if it was on the island or not, he had managed to work some things out while beating the crap out of Snotlout. Like the fact that Toothless had been with her earlier that day when he'd been missing. And then there was the fact that they had run into Toothless again after discovering the carcasses of those dead animals which meant- Skye lived in a cavern on Dragon's Edge.

And if that was so...then he obviously needed to find her before someone else (like the dragon hunters) found her. If she was supposed to be some unknown species of dragon- then he needed to find her and bring her back to the keep where she could be better protected.

But first he'd have to know what exactly she was.

After all, he had never heard of any kind of dragon that could take human form.

"Uh, Hiccup-" Astrid started to ask him what he was thinking. But he sort of cut her off at the legs when he headed over to Fishleg's dragon and pulled a map out of one of his small saddle bags and then moved to Toothless's side and said in a tone that brooked no argument from human nor dragon alike.

"I need light." Toothless obeyed knowing that his human was still rattled and maybe even a touch...well, _upset_. And compliance was really the only way he'd get back in his human's good graces. Especially since the last time his human had gotten angry with him, he'd fed him eel- _Bleh_.

So compliance was good. Especially if it saved him from the unpleasantness of eating eel again tonight.

Using the beginnings of a plasma blast, he opened his mouth just enough to allow some of the light to filter through so that Hiccup could see the scribbles of the island and noted that there were at least seven caverns that were above sea level.

Four of which were well hidden and close enough to a fresh water source, and plentiful vegetation and varying types of animal life that he could easily imagine Skye living there. "Alright Toothless, you don't want to eat eel again for disobeying me-" Toothless closed his mouth, cutting off the light he'd created so that he could nod absently. "Good, because I have a whole basket and then some just waiting for you back at the keep if you don't take me to Skye's cavern right now."

Toothless began to look a little green as his stomach knotted- if that was at all possible for a creature that was pure inky black- as Toothless huffed for a second before moving forward so that his rider could climb onto his back. Once on Toothless's back, Hiccup turned to the others and barked out a few orders.

1) He needed everyone of them to return to the keep.

And 2) He needed Fishlegs to see if he could find anything at all in their archive on mythology and legends and such about a species of dragon that was capable of not only looking human. But capable of human speech as well.

The more information he had about what type of species Skye was, the better off he would be.

Upon hearing this Fishlegs began to get excited while the others became curious about what he was talking about. As far as they all knew there was no such species. Yet Hiccup simply looked down at them and muttered, "Then either Skye is something new..." Or she was something very, very old.

Something that had been thought either lost to human's or dead.

Whatever the reason, he still needed to find her and return her to the keep to protect her. After all, a pretty little thing like her would fetch quite a price on the dragon market. Especially if the buyer was a slave trader of some sort looking for something new and exotic to sell.

After he finished giving his orders, he patted Toothless on the side of the neck and muttered, "Alright boy, lets go." And held on tight as his dragon shot up into the air and disappeared as fast as inhumanly possible.

(*********************************************************************************************************************************)

As soon as she reached her cavern and went inside, Skye collapsed onto the ground. Her body shivering violently as a soft gust of wind brushed her sweaty skin uncomfortably as she crawled a little ways further into the darkness. Her teal eyes glowing softly as she carefully stretched out onto her back on the ground and lightly pressed her hands against her flat stomach.

Already feeling the seed from her earlier mating taking root within her womb. Closing her eyes, she quietly counted the young forming inside of her and let out a shaky breath when she only felt the presence of one. Which was unusual for one of her kind.

Especially when in heat.

But one couldn't argue with results no matter how slight they may be.

She would be a mother again, possibly to a new generation queen like herself. Which meant that her poor little Nightfury may very well find himself mated later on in life to his human's child.

She giggled softly at the amusing thought as she imagined her mate and the Nightfury at odds with one another, albit temporarily, as they butted heads on how her young should live it's life and so on. She imagined the to arguing in their own peculiar way.

Her mate snapping and snarling at his dragon to stay away from his 'daughter' while the Nightfury would take exception to his tone and begin growling and hissing at him until he merely got tired of trying to speak with his human and shot a plasma blast at his head in warning.

She'd imagine the Nightfury winning that round of arguments. At least until her mate figured out how to hurl fire back at him. Which would result in their home probably being burned down... Several dozen times over the years.

But all in all, and this was the most important part- she could imagine them all being happy.

Feeling her lower stomach attempt to twist itself into a painful knot, she moaned softly to herself as she bit down on her bottom lip with her small fang like teeth as she twisted her body so that she lay on her side. Her arms wrapped around her stomach as she drew her legs up to her chest and used one of her wings to cover her body in an attempt to warm her chilled skin.

(**************************************************************************************************************************************)

"I'm not saying that I don't exactly understand," Hiccup finally said to Toothless as they flew. The teen had managed to hold onto his temper towards Toothless for a little bit longer before finally deciding to break the silence and began speaking to him. "After all, I saw her too..." _And did something- well, okay- several things that I probably shouldn't have done._ He mentally reminded himself as he thought back to the whole encounter with Skye from beginning to end.

"All I'm saying is that you didn't have to hide her from me. I get it. She's something new. And most people don't deal well with things that are new. However if she is a new species of dragon- one capable of human form and speech- then that makes her just as much a target for the dragon hunters as it does anyone else. I mean, come on! Even I was surprised to see that the girl I had had-" Okay he wasn't going to go there. He was not going to bring up the fact that he'd had sex with Skye. It made him just a little bit uncomfortable just thinking about it. So he floundered a bit as he spoke his next few words. "An- An _encounter_ with."

Toothless jerked his head sharply to the side so that he could look at his human. Noting the slightly lost expression on his face, the Nightfury chirped at him. Encouraging him to continue putting his foot in his mouth.

It was interesting.

And just a little bit funny, Toothless thought to himself as he bit back a low purr when Hiccup's hand began to gently pet one of the sensitive spots on his neck.

"My point is, boy, that you didn't have to hide her from me. I wouldn't have hurt her." Hiccup said as he inwardly cringed at hose last words while again thinking back to his brief encounter with Skye.

Oh yeah, he wouldn't hurt her.

He'd only slammed her into a tree and held her there while he wrapped his fingers around her long slender throat and possibly left dark splotches on the tender skin there from when he had tightened his grip on her. So while one part of his mind agreed that he wouldn't hurt said female, another part of him- a darker part called him a damned liar.

And after a moment or so of thought, he realized that that dark part of himself was utterly right.

He was a _liar_.

When he'd seen her in the clearing with his dragon, he'd wanted to kill her. He had thought nothing but the worst, especially when she had began speaking to Toothless. Admitting to the animal kills and other things.

He'd recognized then that she was dangerous. Probably in more ways than one after seeing the effect that she had on his and everyone else's dragons.

And that was just another reason why he had briefly wanted to kill her. But the moment he had her pinned against the tree and she hadn't bothered to struggle, something else had taken root in his mind. It was primitive and possessive and tugged at every wicked part of his heart and mind.

Darkly whispering to him- _MINE!_ Even now when Skye was away from him he still felt it. Still felt the pull of it.

She was his.

And he'd kill anyone who so much as dared to try and lay their filthy hands on her.


	8. Chapter 8

The moment Toothless came to the area where Skye lived, he slowly began to descend- not really sure how the hybrid would take having him and his human so close to her cavern home so soon after another mating had occurred.

After all, some female dragons stayed away from their mates for hours. Sometimes even days just to assure that their mating had been successful and that the young that they would birth were given enough time to begin to develop within them before they were born.

But then, Skye was a different sort of creature than most- so again, he wasn't totally sure how she would take to having her territory invaded so suddenly.

On one hand, with his human being her mate- he kind of figured that it might be alright. Calculating the odds to be about fifty/fifty either way, as he finally touched down on the ground and waited for a moment for Hiccup to slide from his perch on his back.

Hiccup looked around the area, noting that it was ideal for an unknown creature to hide when trying to avoid others. It had plenty of vegetation, water, and what looked like the mouth of a cave hidden behind some large rocks and boulders. Camouflaging the opening from prying eyes while leaving just enough room for Skye and perhaps a small sized dragon about Toothless's height and width enough wiggle room to enter and exit easily.

Pulling the sword that he had made for himself- Inferno, he quickly lit it on fire and then looked back at Toothless. Silently telling the dragon to remain where he was so that he could go check things out.

After all, if Skye took their intrusion as a bad thing- he didn't want her attacking the both of them. Toothless could handle himself easily, that was a given. But Hiccup was no slouch in a fight either, and he preferred to keep his dragon where he knew he could escape and get help if worse came to worse.

The viking hoped it wouldn't come to that, but one never knew with unknown creatures.

Especially those with dragon blood coursing through their veins.

Moving cautiously towards the mouth of the cave, he carefully maneuvered himself around the large rocks and boulders and silently slipped inside. Noting somewhat absently that Skye hadn't been lying.

She lived in a cavern. That just looked like a cave from the outside. The truth of the matter was that the cavern was much, much bigger than any one creature should ever have need of.

Moving slowly so as not to cause any trouble for himself, Skye or Toothless, he walked further in several hundred feet before finding Skye laying on the floor of the cavern- er cave- oh whatever, curled up on her side with one of her wings bent at a strange angle, covering her body.

Dropping his weapon, he knelt down and hesitantly reached out a hand and placed it against the side of her face and felt a sliver of dread cut through him as he felt just how cold and clammy her skin was to the touch.

"Oh gods." He said in a horrified tone as he quickly turned her over onto her back and then carefully gathered her up in his arms and was about to grab his sword and head back the way he came when he eyes opened a sliver and she looked at him and whimpered softly.

"Shhh, it's alright. You're going to be alright." Hiccup said, trying to assure her that he was going to do everything that he could to help her as he snatched up his sword and re sheathed it. Dousing the flames as he did so, and then began to run towards the mouth of the cave carrying her slight weight in his arms.

She was unconscious and her body was shaking by the time he reached the outside of the cave again and re joined Toothless whom had been laying on the ground waiting for him to come back. And looked more than a little surprised to see him come out of the cave unscathed and carrying Skye in his arms.

Getting up, Toothless made his way over to the teen and took a moment to nuzzle Skye's cheek, catching the slight scent of her offspring in the sweat that was covering her skin and was more than a little shocked by how quickly she had become pregnant with Hiccup's young.

Normally it took weeks of breeding a female to even yield a small clutch of eggs.

But then again, the reason that she had so easily become pregnant could have something to do with her human blood.

Bending down low enough so that Hiccup could climb onto his back with Skye still in his grasp and have no problems, he waited until his human was in place on his back and twisted his long neck around so that he could look at Hiccup for a moment and saw that his human was distracted with Skye's current state.

Still unaware of her being in heat. He watched as the teen began to systematically check Skye over for anything that may have caused her enough harm to place her in her unconscious state.

It was rather sweet of his human to be so concerned, Toothless supposed.

But utterly useless at this point.

Skye's heat would only get worse from here and for the time being she had placed herself in a deep sleep in order to protect herself from the pain that she would undoubtedly feel soon if she wasn't feeling it already. And then there was the fact that she was only an hour or so pregnant...

That could be a little bit of an issue until her heat went away. Especially since her current state placed her in an unstable condition.

He would have to meet with the other dragons and speak with them about helping to watch her. Otherwise she could loose the young.

Hiccup gently shook Skye a bit, his panic mounting by the second.

Gods, what if this was his fault? What if when he had barreled into her earlier and slammed her against that stupid tree- he had somehow injured her internally?

"Skye? Skye?! Open you're eyes!" Hiccup bit out from behind clenched teeth when Toothless did something peculiar and let out a little purple puff of flame.

Not a plasma blast, but actual honest to god flame.

"Wha- Toothless what are you doing? We need to go. She needs help." Hiccup said as he tightened his grip on Skye's still form. The Nightfury gave another puff of flame, attempting to tell Hiccup what was wrong in his own round about way.

Communicating with his human would have been so much better if he were able to actually speak. He thought as he continued to disobey Hiccup in lieu of puffing out several more breaths of flame before Hiccup finally seemed to grow quiet and finally started to get the picture.

"You know what's wrong with her don't you?"

 _Puff._

"Flame?"

 _Puff._

"Light?"

 _PUFF._

Toothless let out a bigger breath of flame, this one so warm that Hiccup actually squirmed a bit. The Nightfury rolled his eyes in vexation. He should just blow a puff at Hiccup's head and let his hair catch fire or something.

"Heat?" Toothless stopped puffing flame and perked up a bit. This time chirping at Hiccup for finally getting it. "Heat? She's in heat? As in a dragon's mating heat?"

Toothless chirped again as Hiccup settled back in place with Skye held tightly to his chest, his mind racing so fast that his head actually spun from all the information he had to shift through.

Well. Skye going through a dragon's mating heat would certainly be one theory as to why she had not only not tried to escape him earlier, but also allowed him to couple with her and- _oh god!_

Mating heat's meant coupling until a dragon was both mated and bred.

Toothless looked at him expectantly for a moment as Hiccup made this weird little panicked sound. He suddenly felt faint. Granted that he shouldn't because he hadn't done anything to feel that way and yet- if he had mated with Skye during her heat- then to her that was the human equivalent of marriage.

And a heat is meant specifically to ensure the survival of a species.

Which meant offspring...

 _Oh dear Loki._ "Toothless...get us back to the keep please." The dragon chirped at him and quickly took to the air, vaguely aware of his human muttering to himself about feeling light headed.


	9. Chapter 9

"Where do you think Hiccup and Toothless are?" Fishlegs asked Astrid for about the umpteenth time as he carefully searched though different books and piles of parchment that he had laid out on the table before him.

"I have no idea, Fishlegs." Astrid replied in frustration as she looked over her shoulder at the blond Viking. Praying to Thor that he would _just stop asking_. Truly, his constantly questioning her about beginning to make her head ache.

"I think the better question is, do we even want him back after he beat the crud out of me?" Snotloud huffed as Ruffnut and Tuffnut both laughed at him misfortune.

"What are you kidding!"

"Of course we want him back!" After all, seeing Hiccup and Snotlout going head to head was now among one of their favorite past times. They found it funny that the older, formally trained in combat Viking somehow managed to always get his ass handed to him by Hiccup- Berk's one and only, younger and therefore never formally trained in mortal combat- Viking.

"Seeing him pummel you into the ground is quickly becoming our favorite past time." Tuffnut said as laughed hysterically. Behind the two Loki worshipping nitwits, Fishlegs and Astrid both rolled their eyes.

Call them crazy but Hiccup generally wasn't a violent person unless in particular situations where, 1) His family or village was in trouble.

2) His friends were in danger.

3) The dragon's were in some sort of distress.

And then there was number 4. The one that Snotlout and the others had yet to pick up on. And it was, if someone raised their hand to him in a threatening manner- the young future chief of Berk would get pissed enough to put the fear of god into the dumbass/dumbasses stupid enough to try and frighten or intimidate him.

Naturally Snotlout was either too dumb or just plain suicidal to pick up on that fact and start thinking before he acted. Of course Snotlout wasn't the only moron who fell under such a category.

The dragon hunters fell into it too.

And how many people had Hiccup gone through to help the wounded, and captured dragons? You may ask. The answer was a whopping, _countless_ dozens. And it wasn't just people he went through.

He went through dragon hunter ships- often times taking just enough time to free the dragon's on board before he sunk the ships and circled back on Toothless's back just to make sure that many of the men from those cursed vessels called the ocean just off the main beach of Dragon's Edge island their eternal resting place.

Snotlout sniffed and stuck his nose in the air as he muttered, "All I'm saying is that Hiccup should stop beating on his friends."

"He would-" Fishlegs began to say before Astrid cut in.

"If you weren't such an ass all the time."

Snotlout's jaw dropped open at Astrid's insinuation and he stared at her in disbelief. He wasn't an ass all the time. Just a majority of it. There _was_ a difference. But apparently his so called friends didn't know that. He opened his mouth to try and say something witty as a retort when Astrid started jumping up and down in place and pointing as she chanted,

"They're back! They're back!" As Toothless and Hiccup came into sight.

Moving away from the door as fast as she could, Astrid made a beeline for her usual spot next to her dragon and quickly jumped in her seat and put on a bored look as Hiccup and Toothless suddenly appeared in the doorway of the clubhouse that they had built to serve as their great hall when on Dragon's Edge, and automatically searched out Fishlegs as he slid down off of Toothless's back with his arms full of what looked like a human/dragon hybrid.

A _female_ human/dragon hybrid.

Each of them noted as their future chieftain moved to a table over by the far wall that was loaded down with candles and papers, and with one sweep of his arm- cleared the table and scattered everything. Sending some things clattering while other things floated down to the floor where they came to rest in a messy, strewn about manner as Hiccup laid the hybrid down carefully on the table and then leaned over her so that he could press his ear to her chest.

Checking for a heartbeat apparently.

"Whoa." Astrid muttered in shock and awe as she and the others moved in to get a closer look at the hybrid while Hiccup turned to Toothless and gave him the order to go and get whatever he knew the hybrid would need and to bring all of it to him.

Thus the dragon then turned, and quickly ran out of the clubhouse- damn near taking the twins out with his tail as he rushed by them.

Hiccup brushed Skye's long jet back hair back from her face, absently combing his fingers through the silky locks as he tried to think of what he should do. But the truth of the matter was- he wasn't sure if there _was_ anything that he could do. Not in this situation at least.

He was a human through and though and as such was ill equipped to handle a being like Skye who was suffering from a dragon's mating cycle.

A muscle working in his jaw, he was about to turn and ask Fishlegs if he had found anything in their books on a hybrid creature or a dragon rumored to be able to take human form and speak in their language when he saw a big hand touch Skye's bare thigh and a low feral sounding growl escaped his lips before he even realized just who or what had made the sound as he wheeled on the person touching what was his and hashly smacked Touffnut's hand away from that particular area of Skye's body.

"Ouch! Geez, what's your problem?" Toughnut yelped as he held his smarting hand against his chest as if Hiccup were a ravenous animal that had just sank his teeth into him.

"Don't. Touch. Her." The teen gritted out angrily before looking at Fishlegs and asking him if he had found anything only to be disappointed when the pale eyed blond slowly shook his head no.

Closing his eyes for a moment, Hiccup tried to sort through the myriad of emotions warring within him as he slowly counted to ten in the hopes of regaining some semblance of control over himself when Toothless finally returned with a bucket of fish, another bucket hanging from the tip of his tail- full of sloshing water. A fur partially tossed over one of his wings and what looked like a satchel of some of the leather that Hiccup kept stored away to make emergency clothing with hanging on the tip of his other wing.

Stepping forward a bit, Hiccup carefully unloaded his dragon and set everything but the fur down on the floor next to the table. The fur wound up being thrown over Skye's naked body to cover it from specific eyes.

"Thanks boy. Is there anything else she's going to need?" Hiccup asked, uncertain of what else there could be really. She had a nice warm fur to cover her feverish body with, food, water, and some stuff for him to make her some clothing from.

But Toothless seemed to have other ideas.

No sooner than the question had left his lips, did the Nightfury nudge him hard, causing him to stumble and almost fall on top of the unconscious hybrid. "What the-" Hiccup yelped before catching himself to keep from accidentally landing half on top of Skye.

Toothless chirped at him and made a few motions with his head that Hiccup and the other dragon riders found...very, very confusing. Which in turn caused Stormfly to walk over to Toothless and the two quickly began to rub against each other and nuzzle each other affectionately. Causing Hiccup's eyes to go wide as he finally caught the gist of what his dragon was trying to tell him while the others just stared at them in confusion.

As Hiccup exhaled a shaky breath and mouthed the word, "Seriously?" to the dragon who chirped and nodded his head. Causing all of the color to leave Hiccup's face, leaving him looking pale and sickly as he tried to think of a way out of what Toothless was trying to get him to do when he suddenly realized that it was too late.

He had already mated with Skye once, earlier when he had thought her to be just another human girl.

Technically speaking he should have been pissed about being tricked into this situation, but he couldn't in all good conscientious place _all_ of the blame on Skye. After all, he may not know much about her species but he could easily imagine that if he had awoken from a long sleep suffering a dragon's urge to mate- he wouldn't exactly be picky about who he coupled with either.

Especially since it wasn't a totally conscious decision. It was something that was almost always dictated by both _instinct_ and _need_. And she had already chosen him to help her, even if she hadn't simply come out and asked or told him.

She had chosen him. And he had blindly accepted.

That was simply the bottom line of things.

Muttering a particularly terrible oath under his breath, he began to collect the things that Toothless had brought to him to help ease Skye's pain and then carefully scooped the girl up off of the table and turned to leave when Snotlout and Astrid both stepped in his way.

"Hey, where do you think you're going mister? You have some serious explaining to do."

"Not now. Later." Hiccup said as he began to brush by him when Snotlout reached out and grabbed one of Skye's ankles, nearly jerking the unconscious hybrid out of Hiccup's hands.

Hiccup floundered for a moment as he caught Skye around the waist to keep her from falling to the floor and potentially getting hurt as he glared at Snotlout with something akin to a murderous look on his face. "Not later Hiccup, now." The dark haired Viking said as Hiccup opened his mouth to tell him to release Skye before he really got hurt when Toothless fired a plasma blast at him, causing him to abruptly release the girl and thus giving Hiccup the time needed to escape.


	10. Chapter 10

Kicking the door to his hut open, Hiccup carefully pushed through the swinging wood before it could close on him and made quick work of pulling Skye's wings out of the way so that they wouldn't be injured when the door swung closed, and then quickly made his way to his bedroom and laid her down on his bed.

Making sure to set everything (the food, water, leather cloth ect..) down before moving to recover her body with the fur from earlier before then stepping away to go build a fire in the hearth across the room so that the cool room would warm up a bit.

After all, he wasn't all that sure whether or not Skye was capable of catching a cold and whatnot but he didn't think it would be smart to take any chances with her health in her current state.

Moving over to the stone fire place, Hiccup began piling some wood that he kept in a neat stack up against the wall beside the hearth, on top of a small pile of coal that he kept in a bucket next to the wood and was about to use some flint to start it when Toothless came into the hut.

Causing the door to squeak a little bit like it always did when he entered.

Turning to the dragon, Hiccup stuffed the flint back into it's pouch and said, "You mind helping here?" To which Toothless responded by puffing a small purple flame into the fireplace. Igniting the coal and the wood so that the room could heat up to a more comfortable temperature without having to wait for hours for it to happen.

Hiccup was used to the cold due to growing up on Berk since the island of his birth stayed covered in snow and ice a majority of the year, but that didn't mean that Skye liked the cold.

In fact as far as Toothless was aware, her body temperature was just slightly below the average human's. Then again he could be wrong. He'd have to ask her sometime to know for certain.

"Okay. Thanks for that bud," Hiccup said as he absently moved to pet his dragon on the head as he asked, "Did you set Snotlout's head on fire?" Tooothless gave him that weird dragonesque smile of his.

You know, the one he often gave his human companion when he was either happy or trying to simply weird him out.

Chuckling softly at the sight of that fangless smirk on his dragon's reptilian face, Hiccup scratched him under the chin for a second before letting his amusement fade so that he could focus on the current issue. "I take that as a yes..." Sighing Hiccup leaned down a tad bit and rested his head against his dragon's and muttered, "Well, on to other things. So I guess that after tonight I can consider myself a mated man, huh?"

Toothless chirped at him and took a moment to rear up on his hind legs and lick Hiccup on the cheek.

"Right. Okay, then. I'll take that as a yes," Hiccup said as he wiped the dragon spit from his cheek with his shirt sleeve and looked across the room at Skye before muttering awkwardly to Toothless, "I-I have no idea what to do with her now that I've got her here."

Causing the Night fury to simply roll his eyes at his human.

 _Why doesn't that surprise me?_ Toothless wondered as he thought over the night's events. Specifically noting various changes in Hiccup's personality that had come into play since meeting Skye face to face. Or more specifically the aspects of his personality that were brought about by Skye's mating bond to him.

Sure the queen mother had began the mating ritual with his human the night before, she had even gone so far as to place her mark upon his body when she had bitten him and taken a small bit of his blood into her body. However until Hiccup's mating bond really kicked into high gear and he placed his own mark upon Skye- their bond would be unstable. _Incomplete_.

Which would make Hiccup a great deal more dangerous than he already was for a human. Especially towards those he deemed as a threat to his mate and young. And then of course there was Toothless and the rest of the dragons and their bond with the human's to consider.

Granted the dragons each loved their human's and would do anything for them, but with the queen mother present- their loyalties may very well shift and alter their bonds. Hopefully not in a way that would become dangerous to their human's.

After all, Toothless didn't want his human hurt anymore than he wanted the rest of the dragon riders hurt.

But their species was unfailingly loyal to their own. And since Skye was one of their own, their priorities- especially during her pregnancy- were probably going to get in the way of their work with the dragon riders. Oh sure, they wouldn't abandon their duties to their fellow dragon.

Especially with the hunter's on the loose.

I mean, they weren't stupid.

Leaving that lot alone for any length of time meant trouble with a capital T. But during Skye's pregnancy, they were far more likely to stick close to her side to help their human's better protect her.

Hiccup himself would eventually find himself unable to leave her side for long periods of time due to their mating. His fierce loyalty and love for their kind would not allow him to abandon Skye. Especially once he was made aware of the fact that she carried his young. As well as the fact that the entire dragon race's very lives hinged on Skye's, Hiccup's, and their unborn young's very continued existence.

Scrubbing his hands over his face, Hiccup made a little sound of frustration that pulled Toothless from his own thoughts as his human turned to him again and asked. "Okay. Skye needs me- er _us_ to help her take care of herself in her present condition. What do I need to start with first?"

Toothless thought for a moment before using his tail to nudge the water bucket towards Hiccup who looked down at it and then nodded. "Okay, water. I get it. She's feverish and sweating a lot so it makes sense that she would need to replace what she's lost."

Toothless bobbed his head in silent agreement.

It was incredibly important for pregnant females to remain hydrated during their heat other wise they slipped into a death like sleep and never awoke. Their organs simply, slowly began to shut down and by the time the male usually figured things out- the female and any potential young were already dead.

So yeah, starting with water would be good.

Bending down, Hiccup picked up the water bucket and then moved to the bedside and sat down on the edge of the straw mattress and slipped a hand underneath Skye's head and then lifted her up a little bit as he used the ladle to carefully pour water past her slightly parted lips.

Toothless watched for a moment to see if he would have to intervene at any point, worried slightly that she may not be able to drink while in her current state, and was relieved when he saw the subtle movement of her throat working to swallow what Hiccup poured into her mouth.

So it looked like they were good on that end.

Once Hiccup was done with the water, he again looked to Toothless who this time nudged the bucket of fresh fish. Causing Hiccup to frown slightly. He didn't think that Skye could eat in her sleep, though if he was wrong and she could. He supposed he'd be impressed.

God knew that it would make things a great deal easier.

However Toothless seemed to have anticipated the question he was about to ask and scampered off for a second and came back a moment later with his little stone mortar and it's pestle and then disappeared again and reappeared with one of his storage pouches where he kept dry deer and cow meat as well as one of the pouches that he kept dried berries and wild nuts in and placed all of them beside the bucket of fish and then sat down and waited for his human to pick up on his clues.

Thank Odin he had a clever human who was quick to pick up on even the slightest of clues. Otherwise he would have had to bite him.


	11. Chapter 11

"Are you sure about this?" Hiccup asked Toothless hesitantly for what must have been the hundredth time in the time that he had spent crushing and grinding some of the things that that the Nightfury had brought to him. He'd spent more than an hour been thorough in his adding, measuring, mixing and grinding of the items until a fine powder was finally produced.

Toothless bobbed his head for what must have been the millionth time, his patience starting to wear just a bit thin due to all the questions that his human was asking.

Not that he didn't understand the reasons behind why he asked so many things. He did. If he didn't understand he was fairly certain that the teen would be missing another limb by now. Still it didn't help that all the questions were beginning to wear on him a bit.

After all, even he was running on more theory than logic here.

Skye was half dragon, ergo her diet could be pretty much a little bit of everything from raw to cooked meats, nuts, berries, vegetables and some other things that may very well not be known to him.

As stated before, he was running on more theory than logic.

However he was at least eighty percent certain that despite not knowing everything that he probably should have known about the queen mother of his race, he was however right about her diet at least.

He hoped...

"Okay so after I feed her this then what do I do?" Hiccup asked him and Toothless had to resist the urge to snap his several rows of super sharp teeth at him in vexation. The answer was obvious. So much so that even the idiot oaf Snotlout would and _could_ have been able to figure it out with no help whatsoever from the Nightfury.

Still, he knew that Hiccup wouldn't be asking him for help unless he felt deep down that he really needed it. So he looked down at the water bucket, Hiccup following his line of sight until his expression became considerably lighter. Less serious. And more- _Ah, I get it_.

"Alright, after giving her the powder stuff, I should give her more water. And then?" Hiccup asked curiously. Toothless decided that this question was the one that broke the yack's back, so to speak. And ignored him so that he could go curl up somewhere and get some sleep.

After all, chances were good that Skye would awaken in the next hour or two and need Hiccup to help her relieve her pain by mating again. And while staring at his human's pale naked butt wasn't all that interesting, observing his actions when he mated with Skye was somewhat interesting.

Well not the mating in itself, that was just weird to the dragon. No- what he found interesting was the way mating between human's was initiated. Though there was little ceremony or ritual to the whole thing.

Watching Hiccup feed the powder to Skye and then give her more water- Toothless became slightly distracted when Hiccup began to talk to him about designing and making some clothing for the queen mother.

"It'll have to be backless to accommodate for her wings. And I was thinking of fixing something along the lines of leggings that can be worn under a skirt sort of like Astrid's. And because her shirt will be backless- I was thinking of having buckles that go up around her neck and another at the middle of her back. Of course this means that her stomach will be bare..." Hiccup suddenly stopped prattling on and frowned for a moment before seeing to realize something important.

Something that he had been overlooking since his second mating with Skye.

"Her stomach will be bare... Vulnerable to attack." He frowned a little bit as he paled slightly. Toothless lay in his spot curled up across the room waiting for his human to complete his mental gymnastics and simply grow a pair of balls and _say it._ "Her children-" His mind seemed to sputter to a halt right there.

Toothless lifted his head a bit to look at his human, his yellowish green eyes taking on a concerned light as he saw Hiccup reach out and pull the fur away from Skye's body so that he could place his hand over her flat stomach, and blinked when his human caressed the skin there almost lovingly before finally saying, "Our children... Oh god, _our_ children will be vulnerable to attacks from other Vikings as well as dragon hunters."

He quickly recovered Skye with the fur and moved away from his bedside so that he could put a little bit of distance between himself and the hybrid girl that had so easily sealed his fate and bound it to her own along with any future offspring his bloodline may produce.


	12. Chapter 12

_Children._

They were blessings that Hiccup had never really thought he would survive long enough to have. And yet- Here he was almost twenty summer's old and the unrealized whisper of a particular dream- No that was wrong. It wasn't just a whisper of a dream he'd had. It was more like an intangible desire.

A _need_ that he had thought far beyond his reach.

And now, here he was with an opportunity. A strange one, sure. But one that could very well give him what he had always wanted more than anything, aside from peace with the dragons, that is.

 _A family._

He felt his heart begin to speed up in his chest at the mere prospect.

He had always wanted a family of his own, ever since his younger years. Even after things back home on Berk had drastically improved and his village had finally gained peace after hundreds of years of senseless bloodshed. He had still felt deep down that there was something missing from his life.

He had felt a deep and painful void of incompletion that he hadn't been able to place his finger on until one day when one of his distant relatives had come to Berk to visit him and his father.

It had been his cousin Cercin and along with him had been his two young children.

A boy and a girl. Both barely more than two years old- they had been introduced to him and his dad while peeking from behind their father's legs.

Both kids had been adorable, and had attached themselves to Hiccup's hip automatically. And in the weeks they and their father spent visiting, he had watched over, played with, fed, bathed, and put the two to sleep almost every night and then would sit back and watch over them as they slept.

And when he had finally slipped into the welcoming embrace of sleep, he had dreamt of nothing but a faceless woman. Beautiful, patient, loyal and kind.

 _His wife._

He had lovingly named the unknown woman, carving the words deep into his heart along with the nameless children that they had had together in his dream. Dozens upon dozens of them.

Precious little ones with their mother's fair coloring and his eyes and in some cases, even his wild auburn hair. And oh, how he had loved them. How he had wanted to wake in the morning with his nameless and faceless wife and their children wrapped up safely and lovingly in his arms.

And now...

Here he sat in his room, in his second home on the island of Dragon's Edge- starring hard at the hybrid girl lying on his bed. The very hybrid girl that had come to him while suffering from a dragon's heat and had mated with him.

Scrubbing his hands over his face in some vain attempt to help keep himself calm in the face of uncertain circumstances, he looked to his dragon friend and simply had to ask one last thing of him for the night.

One last thing to either confirm or deny what he felt he needed to know deep down in his heart of hearts.

"Toothless... I-I know that I've relied on you for a lot tonight," The dragon merely continued to stare at him as if waiting for something. Which he probably was, Hiccup figured. The damn dragon would be able to tell automatically whether or not he would be becoming a father after Skye's heat passed. After all, he could probably smell his and Skye's scent's combined within her blood stream. "But I need you to help me one more time. W-Will you please tell me if I-I'm going to be a father?"

Toothless didn't move from his spot across the room, he merely gave Hiccup a slight bob of his head to confirm his human's thoughts. And watched the peculiar look of longing that flitted across Hiccup's face before he gave a soft laugh as he looked up at his dragon who merely gave a dragon-like version of a laugh and joined Hiccup in his merriment.


	13. Chapter 13

**Sorry for the lateness of this chap- I had a lot of things to do today and couldn't really get started on my writing until all of it was done.**

 **And it took f-o-r-e-v-e-r!**

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Hiccup remained awake throughout most of the night, his previously chaotic mind filled with thoughts of a different sort of chaos. The kind of chaos that only learning something as life altering as becoming a mated man and impending father could bring.

And along with it came worry. Deep, all consuming, energy draining- worry that could and would easily become terror if Toothless hadn't moved himself closer to his human to give him something to distract himself from a majority of the bad things going through his head so that he could simply focus on the good things.

Children.

A mate/wife.

 _A family._

All the things that he had ever wanted or dared to dream of. All of it was now so closely within his reach. And his previously believed uncertain future now felt so much more tangible. So much more _reachable._ It was both as wonderful as it was terrifying to think on.

And think on it Hiccup did. For so very many hours of the night and well into the early morning.

He had too if he was to somehow manage to protect both Skye and any offspring she may give birth to due to her dragon's heat. After all, he needed to plan for any possibility that his children may not be wholly human and as such would have specific wants and needs that he may find difficult to deal with later on.

Even if it meant his/her very survival.

After all with their mother being half dragon hybrid- chances were that at least one or two of their offspring would be just like their mother. Dark haired, eerie eyed, _and_ winged. And if that were so...then well, he would need to speak at length with Skye on how to better protect them since she would likely have some ideas.

In the meantime... His sketch book and something to draw with was dropped at his feet causing him to suddenly and abruptly blink his thoughts away and look from Skye's sleeping form so that his eyes locked with Toothless's own for a moment before the dragon curled up beside him and waited for him to lean down and pick up the items.

"Hey boy," He said gently as he reached out to lightly pet his dragon behind one of his ears. "What did you bring this stuff here for? Trying to tell me something?" Hiccup wondered aloud as he stopped petting his dragon for a moment so that he could lean down and pick up his book and the thing he used to sketch with.

Toothless let out a low, contented sounding purr as he laid his head down on his folded front legs and let his purr break off just long enough to yawn before resuming to fill the hut with the soft sound.

Leaving Hiccup to his own vices a little bit as he slowly began to doze off to the somewhat reluctant sound of the sketch book being opened and the burnt tipped stick beginning it's scratching across the parchment.

When he woke up a little bit later, it was to the sound of silence.

Hiccup had at some point laid his sketch book and burnt tip stick down in the chair he had been sitting in and had apparently moved himself over to the bed where he currently lay on top of the fur- minus his shirt- of course, with one arm underneath Skye's head and his free hand resting lightly on her stomach.

His human looked to have finally settled himself down and fallen into a dead sleep next to his mate.

Getting up, the Nightfury stretched his body like a giant cat. Digging his retractable claws into the wooden floor under his feet for a moment as he arched his back ever so slightly. Feeling his spine crack and pop a little bit causing him to twitch ever so slightly as he finally finished his stretching, and glanced back over at the bed to find that Hiccup was still sleeping and Skye's eyes were open to slits.

She must have woken up at the same exact moment he had, and had simply been watching his human sleep for a moment. Chirping out a cheery 'good morning' to her, she glanced at him for a moment and softly chirped back at him before shifting under the fur so that she was lying on her side facing Hiccup.

Apparently she was feeling more weary than he had initially thought that she would be upon waking. She was completely ignoring any and all signs of her heat so that she could get what rest she could.

It was... _understandable_ , Toothless supposed, that she may make an attempt to ignore her bodily needs in one way so that she could rest was fine. But the fact that she was blatantly ignoring her other bodily needs wasn't. In fact it was downright dangerous.

Which was why Toothless grabbed the bucket of fish that Hiccup kept lying around for him to eat and made his way over to the side of the bed where he dropped it.

Letting it hit the floor with a loud thud. Causing Hiccup to bolt upright on the bed (well as upright as he could get with his arm trapped under Skye's head anyways) and stare straight ahead for a moment before blinking and then slowly turning his head to look at Toothless.

"Toothless? W-What are you doing?" Hiccup asked in a sleep rough tone as his dragon sat himself down on the other side of the bed just beyond his reach and made a weird sound and looked down at- Oh. _Oh!_ Hiccup thought somewhat distantly as he looked down at Skye to find that her eyes were open and she had a very irked expression on her face.

She is awake. The voice in his sleep numb mind pointed out.

To which he told himself, Yes I know... Shut up, as Toothless wrapped the tip of his tail around the handle of the water bucket and lifted it so that he could place it in Hiccup's hands. Once that was done the dragon made a low rumbling sound and then quickly leaned in and nuzzled both Hiccup and Skye and then quickly scampered out of the room and then out of the hut.

Hiccup knew that Toothless was gone because he heard the distinct squeaking of the door as he passed through it coupled with the combined yelping from outside of his hut that sounded suspiciously like... Sontlout and Tuffnut?


	14. Chapter 14

Hiccup knew that Toothless was gone because he heard the distinct squeaking of the door as he passed through it coupled with the combined yelping from outside of his hut that sounded suspiciously like... Sontlout and Tuffnut?

Scrubbing his face with his free hand, Hiccup made an annoyed little sound in the back of his throat as he thought, _What the hell?_

What the devil were those two moron's doing outside of his hut? He wondered as he looked at Skye for a moment before leaning in and kissing her on the forehead for a moment and then pulled his arm free out from under her head so that he could get up and go chase the dumbasses off before Toothless decided to roast them alive.

Moving from the bedroom to the door of his hut, he pushed on the door ever so slightly with his shoulder and watched as Toothless let out a fierce sounding warning growl and flared his wings a little bit as he stared down the two teens as they picked themselves up off of the floor and _glared_ at the dragon.

"Hey! Just what the hell do you think you're doing you overgrown lizard?!" Snotlout snapped angrily.

"Yeah! We were sent here on official business by Astrid. So move aside-" Tuffnut said haughtily as he tried to wave the dragon off so that they could do as they had been sent to do.

Capture the hybrid and bring her to Fishlegs to be studied.

Since finding a hybrid was new to them, and apparently needed to be studied for future reference just in case they ever came across another of the hybrid's kind.

Something that the small group had agreed would probably never happen again in their life times unless the dragon girl was bred and gave birth to another like herself. Which was another thing that they had spoken of. And decided that until they knew whether or not she was a threat to them- they could not allow her to breed.

Which meant that if she was already, they would be charged with the unpleasant task of having to kill her or her offspring.

Whichever came first. They had both sort of stopped paying attention at about that point so the rest of the conversation was lost to them. All they knew was their orders from Astrid.

Capture the hybrid and bring her to Fishlegs.

However they didn't count on Hiccup making an rather surprising appearance to bar their way into the hut along side Toothless who only settled down a little bit once he felt his human's hand on his neck as they both regarded the other two quietly.

"And what order's did Astrid send you to fulfill?" Hiccup asked, his tone strangely chilling. Even Toothless looked at him for a moment before returning his focus to the other two Vikings as Snotlout replied.

"We were ordered to capture the hybrid and bring her to Fishlegs for study." He said as he stuck out his chest, looking and feeling rather proud of himself.

Hiccup made an irritated sound and made a mental note to see to it that Astrid got a thorough taking too later on when the door opened slightly behind him and Skye began to peek out. Apparently having become curious as to why she had been left all alone.

This of course caused Snotlout and Tuffnut to try and distract both Hiccup and Toothless so that at least one of them could slip around the two and grab the hybrid.

Toothless and Hiccup however weren't impressed and before things could become really bad and either of the oafs could so much as touch Skye- Hiccup quickly slipped his arms around his mate and pulled her tightly against his body. His front to her back as he rested his chin on the top of her head and said, "Skye. Meet Snotlout and Tuffnut. They have orders to take you from me."

He gave the two a freakishly scary looking smirk and then kissed Skye's temple, watching from the corner of his eye as their jaws dropped open in blatant shock and disbelief. "I don't think they'll get very far if they try to take you from me. What do you think?" He asked curiously.

Toothless growled at the two again as Skye leaned into Hiccup and absently toyed with one of the leather gauntlets encasing his forearms and slowly shook her head no.

She did not think that the two human's would get very far and live to tell about it should they make any move towards her. Not if she was reading her mate's body language right, that is.

Hiccup smiled faintly against her hair before lifting his head enough to be able to speak again without accidentally managing to eat some of Skye's hair in the process. "You go back and tell Astrid that if she wants something she is to come to me and we'll speak about it. But Skye here, isn't up for discussion or debate. In fact if Astrid has a problem with her being here then she can leave. And she will no longer be welcome at Dragon's Edge."

"W-What?"

"Hey, you can't do that to her-"

"Shut up," Hiccup said in that oddly chilling tone, stopping any further protests that the two Vikings may have had automatically. "I'm not asking you as you're friend. I'm telling all of you as you're future chief. _Skye. Is. Not. To. Be_. _Touched_. Now leave before I let Toothless fry both of your sorry asses." Hiccup said as he leaned down a little bit and slipped an arm under her legs and another around her slender shoulders, just shy of touching her wings and then picked her up and re entered his hut after barking out the order.

"Toothless. Guard!" Causing the Nightfury to snarl at the two Vikings before he whipped around and sent them flying with a couple of terrified screams- with a _swish_ of his tail.


	15. Chapter 15

Hiccup carefully set Skye down on his bed and stepped back from her and looked around for a moment before spotting the water bucket. The now totally empty water bucket.

 _Great._ He thought as he made a mental note to go and get some more water at some point once he was sure that the others weren't going to be an issue anymore. Preferably after he had a few choice words with his second in command about going behind his back and overstepping her authority.

Until then however- he was going to focus his attention on Skye and get to know her some.

"Sorry about that," He said as he pointed towards the turned over bucket and the puddle around it. "I'll go get you some fresh water here in a little while. Until then... Why don't I try fixing you something to eat." He said as he looked around for the fish bucket and inwardly cringed.

Because the fish wasn't freshly caught and as far as he knew she very well might get sick if she attempted to eat anything from it. Shaking his head slightly as if to clear it, he moved to his leather satchel and retrieved some of the dried meat from it along with some dried fruit slices and some nuts.

It wasn't an ideal meal. In fact it was pretty pitiful as far as first meals went.

But he knew from experience that pregnant women needed to eat foods that were nutritious for them and their babies. So until he could figure out what her main diet consisted of and go hunting for fresh food. Then for the moment, this was the best that he could do.

Although if he was careful and planned accordingly then maybe he could have Toothless help him hunt something for her. Until then, he supposed that he would be going through his stored foods. And with any luck maybe he wouldn't run totally out before he could replenish everything.

Sitting down on the bed beside her, he pulled out several strips of meat, some fruit slices (enough for the both of them) and some nuts and began to hand her some of the food. "Here. I'm not a huge expert on pregnancy but I know that you need to eat. Especially since you've been out since after our little..." He glanced at her as she took a piece of dried meat in one hand and brought it to her mouth and began to nibble on it. "Tryst."

He said the word hoping to get some sort of reaction out of her. A blush. An awkward glance. Just something aside from the small tip of her pink tongue escaping her mouth to wet her lips.

Then again he supposed that that _was_ her equivalent of a reaction.

 _I can't expect all of her reactions to specific things to be as human as my own._ He told himself as he popped a slice of fruit into his mouth and chewed. Slowly as she seemed to have focused all of her attention on him. Or more specifically, his mouth.

He swallowed hard, hoping to somehow manage to get the piece of food down without choking due to his sudden case of dry mouth. Licking his lips nervously, he suddenly felt a little bit wary of being so close to Skye.

She was beginning to act like she wanted to jump him.

And he wasn't all that sure if that was a good or bad thing. He wanted to lean more towards good, but well, logic and common sense told him that the intent expression on her pretty face had about a fifty/fifty chance of actually being anything good.

And just as he opened his mouth to ask her what she was staring at him for, she pounce on him. Like literally pounced on him like a wild animal or something. Her arms automatically going around his neck as her lips pressed against his own, her body pressed as close to his own as it could get without melding the two of them into one being.

Which Hiccup thought was just a tad bit funny before he brought his hands up to rest lightly on her waist as the two of them toppled over onto the bed in a tangle of limbs.

Blinking his eyes, he let out a low moan as Skye ran her tongue along his bottom lip before nipping at it slightly with her sharp little teeth. Causing him to grip her hips tightly in his hands just to keep from flinching or tensing up. After all, he had no idea how she would react to him doing those things in the midst of a kiss.

He just hoped that she wasn't trying to eat his course it didn't feel like that was what she was doing. But her sharp teeth were of a slight concern to him at the moment.

That's all.

Sliding one hand up from her hip to lightly dance along the side of her ribs as he rolled them so that she was pinned underneath his heavy weight at the same exact moment he finally managed to thread his fingers through the silken hair at her nape and slanted his mouth over hers in response to the fire she lit in his blood.

She arched her back under him as she made a smothered keening sound in the back of her throat. Something that he was learning fast was a direct sign of her wanton need to have him inside of her.

Pulling back a bit, Hiccup looked down at her and caressed the soft skin of her cheek with his knuckles as he whispered more to himself than her, "Wicked woman." Quickly working the buckles and ties holding his shirt in place, he all but ripped the garment from his body and threw it down before leaning back down to take her lips again and again and again as he told her between kisses that one day they would have a lengthy conversation.

One day.

But apparently not today since both had a great deal more than conversation on their minds at the moment.

Carefully balancing himself so that he didn't wind up crushing her for fear of hurting her and their child, he ditched his pants and slipped a hand between her legs to cup her core, checking to make sure that she was wet enough to take him without feeling any pain or discomfort- he was only slightly amazed by the fact that she was more than wet enough.

It was as if her body knew instinctively when to become wet.

Was it a byproduct of her dragon's heat? He wondered idly for a moment when he felt her hands- or rather more accurately, her finger tips lightly running across his shoulders forcing him to shudder and bite his lower lip to keep from shouting.

Leaning over Skye to press his lips against her throat and gently suck at the tender skin of her throat to distract her so that she couldn't tense up, Hiccup entered her completely in one thrust. Causing them both to cry out at the same time. Completely missing the fact that someone had somehow managed to enter the hut and was staring at the two with wide horrified eyes.


	16. Chapter 16

Astrid stared at the two on Hiccup's bed with a mixture of morbid fascination and horror.

The fiercely loyal female Viking, and once pride of Berk, just couldn't believe what she was seeing. But then she hadn't exactly expected her long time childhood friend and future Chieftain to suddenly turn into a stranger because of a hybrid dragon/human creature either.

But given Hiccup's strange love of all things dragon and dragon related...

Perhaps she _should_ have seen this coming.

Well, alright- to be perfectly honest about things, part of her had sort of seen this coming.

It was just one of the many reasons why she had wanted to separate the teen and the hybrid. Another was so that they could study her and try to see what purpose she served.

After that, they would have held a meeting to decide her fate. Should she live or die? Frankly Astrid felt that she was all the more dangerous now that she could see just what Hiccup and the hybrid were doing and every instinct the Viking girl possessed told her that the hybrid must be dealt with.

Even if it meant pushing Hiccup from her life forever by doing what obviously needed to be done.

Silently pulling her ax from it's sheath on her back, she quickly and stealthily made her way further into the room and slipped behind Hiccup.

Her ability to remain hidden was greatly enhanced by the fact that he was sufficiently distracted by the hybrid girl's charms. She thought in disgust as she got about a foot or so from the bed when one of the floor boards under her feet let out a loud squeak.

Hiccup wrapped his arms tightly around Skye's body as he slowly turned his head to look over his shoulder as soon as he heard the squeaking sound of wood giving way just a little bit. His green eyes narrowing slightly as the hair on the back of his neck stood on end.

Someone was there.

He could feel it as surely as he could feel Skye's soft warm skin shivering underneath his finger tips.

And for once the presence of the one hovering behind his back wasn't that of his Nightfury. No- Hiccup and Toothless had known each other for so long that the Viking knew that the dragon had a tendency to announce himself even when he was at his quietest. After all the first time he had made the mistake of not doing so, Hiccup had very nearly taken his head off with a shield.

But in the teen's defense- it had been Loki day and the twins had gotten to him several times. The last time of course had placed Hiccup in a life or death situation where he'd wound up trying to fight a wild dragon while hanging upside down.

With only a stick as a weapon.

It hadn't been one of his better moments. And he had repaid Ruffnut and Tuffnut in kind for their wonderfully amusing efforts to get him to join the fun.

In fact if he last recalled, Tuffnut had lost five teeth when Hiccup had caught him and his sister in the great hall laughing about his misfortune and then when neither of them had been paying attention- he had grabbed Tuffnut by the scruff of his neck since he had known the joke to be mainly his idea in the first place- and dragged him outside where he had then laid down the law.

With his fist.

Him.

The first ever perpetual pacifist Viking born in the history of...well, ever. Had knocked five teeth out of another Viking's mouth and laid him out flat on his back in the snow in front of god and everyone!

To say that his father and everyone else in the village had been utterly stupefied by the public display of temper and aggression would of course be an understatement. To this day back home on Berk, he lived with the embarrassing/flattering nickname of Thor's hammer.

Which had nothing to do with anything happening at the moment he supposed, with of course the exception of one thing- The only person who would dare to attempt to sneak up on him in his current state had to be none other than his second in command.

 _Astrid._

And from the careful way she was trying to creep up on his and Skye during such a vulnerable time for the two was a clear indication of what her intentions were. Gripping Skye in his arms all that much tighter so that he could shield her from his childhood friend's ax if need be. He mentally prepared himself to lose another limb or worse.

 _I need to call Toothless_. He thought before quickly rejecting the idea of calling his dragon from his watch outside since it would mean that the others would think it okay to come barreling in to pry Skye from his grasp. And that was something that he couldn't have.

Not when Skye was in heat nor while she was pregnant with his child/children.

He sensed hesitation from Astrid. Possibly because she hadn't attacked them just yet. Or maybe because he was using himself to shield Skye from the possibility of injury or death. After all, Astrid couldn't do anything to her if she couldn't strike her without cleaving him in two.

He leaned down and lightly kissed Skye, silently promising to get rid of the pest and finish their coupling as he withdrew himself from her and said in a slightly breathless yet no less annoyed tone, "Well Astrid. What do you want?"

The young woman gripped her ax a little tighter, her mind kept telling her that she had to deal with the hybrid now, but another part of her wanted to try and appeal to Hiccup's sense of reason.

If he still had any sense that is.

"Hiccup you need to get away from that- that _thing_! She's dangerous and has obviously done something to you otherwise you wouldn't be-" Astrid said in a rush before Hiccup slowly got up off of the bed and turned to face him. His expression apathetic as he stared at her.

"I wouldn't be what Astrid? I wouldn't be taking care of my mate during her heat? I wouldn't be shielding her from you and the others and whatever plans you've made for her behind my back. Come on, say what your really thinking." Hiccup said as he took a small step towards her.

Not knowing what he was playing at, Astrid quickly moved back two steps. Wishing to keep herself at least well out of arms length of him since she had no idea what the hell was going on.

It was as if the hybrid thing had hijacked her friend's brain.

Something that she was beginning to fear more and more by the second as Hiccup gave her a slight smirk with just enough cruelty to it to chill her blood in her veins as he tracked her movements while he carefully maneuvered her into a closed in area.

"S-She's dangerous." Astrid said again.

"So am I." Hiccup said easily as he took another step towards her. And watched her move away again.

"We don't know what that thing is." She said.

"Now you're just grasping at straws."

"It needs to be dealt with!" Astrid said desperately as her back hit the wall. Earning a small gasp of surprise from her as she half turned to look at where she was and paled when she realized that she was trapped.

Hiccup was in her personal space now. Just barely standing a hairs breath from touching her, his arms crossed over his chest as he waited for her to look up at him.

Astrid was a smart girl, Hiccup figured. Perhaps far smarter than she should be for a viking woman. Of course she would notice his behavior and think that Skye had something to do with it. After all she and the others had never really seen him act this way outside of a battle with a monsterous dragon or the dragon hunters. So naturally she and the others wouldn't understand the significance of his actions unless everything was explained to them carefully.

Something that was looking more and more as if he wouldn't be able to put off.

 _Dammit._ Hiccup thought feeling more angry with himself than his friends for their various reactions to Skye. Reaching out, he grasped one of Astrid's hands in his and pulled her with him as he walked back over to the bed where Skye was now sitting up with her wings folded carefully so that her body was covered and was munching on one of the piece of previously discarded dry meats, while she watched the two.

Stopping just shy of the bed, Hiccup took a moment to pry Astrid's ax from her white knuckled death grip and carefully set it well out of her reach and then said.

"Astrid. This is Skye. _My mate_." He put emphasis on the words, My mate, before moving on to say to Skye, "Skye, this is my friend Astrid. Say hello."

"Hello Astrid." Skye said in neither a pleasant nor unpleasant tone since she understood very well what he mate was attempting.

Astrid's jaw went slack and her eyes widened to the point where Skye was tempted to poke her in them just to assure herself that the human female's eyes weren't going to pop right out of their sockets as her mate stifled a laugh behind one of his hands.

Shooting him a look, Skye noted that he quickly sobered under her unblinking stare as she gave the girl a small tentative smile and asked, "How are you today?"

Astrid's jaw worked for a second as she let out this weird hysterical sounding squeak that nearly had Hiccup in stitches. Or at least he would have been- if she had not fainted at his and Skye's feet.

He jumped back ever so slightly as her body hit the floor with a dull thud, his eyes going wide in alarm as he heard Skye sigh and then say, "Well that could have gone better."


	17. Chapter 17

**Yo- glad that everyone is liking the story so far.**

 **I might not be updating as fast as I was before, partially due to the fact that I'm distracted by the fact that my mother in law has been placed in the hospital with a severe case a dangerously low potassium and a bad case of phenomia.**

 **She's okay so far and is responding well to medicine. But due to the fact that she's working on less than 25 percent of a functioning heart- well... We seriously worry about her.**

 **I went to sit with her for most of the day yesterday and made sure that she ate. And while I was eating a turkey wrap I told her that because of all the mayo packets I had snitched from the cafeteria- if anyone asked about the mayo I was selling her up the creek and proclaiming innocence.**

 **Of course I did this with mayo smeared on my mouth. Which I guess she found funny.**

 **I also made her a sterling silver and pink sapphire solitare ring as a bribe for her to get better.**

 **So anyways- here's hoping. And enjoy the chap and all future ones to come.**

 **Later!**

(***********************************************************************************************************************************)

"Well that could have gone better."

Hiccup felt like he was caught between hysterical laughter and frustration as he silently agreed with Skye. She was right. Her introduction to Astrid could have gone better. He'd never seen the girl faint before. In fact he had been fairly certain that Astrid was so much different from other girls her age that she didn't even know _how_ to faint.

Much less mange to execute the action.

And yet, here they were. Astrid dead to the world on his floor and his mate looking more than a little...upset? _Uh-oh. Here comes the fallout. I should probably hide somewhere._ He thought just in case Skye decided to breathe fire or something. Because as absurd as the idea seemed- he didn't know exactly what dragony things Skye could do aside from flying and go into heat.

And become pregnant very easily.

"Um..." He started to say something like, I'll just be going now. Or, I hear my dad calling me, when Skye said.

"Get her up off of the floor." Causing him to pause in his escape plans. Loki knew why he bothered, he probably wouldn't have gotten very far anyways- and looked down at Astrid for a moment before realizing just what Skye had said to him, and finally moved to obey.

Carefully picking Astrid up off of the floor and laying her down on his bed and then glanced over at Skye again, time wondering what was going through her mind as she knelt down next to the bed and began to gently run her hands along Astrid's head, neck, arms and so on.

Confused as to what she was doing, he thought briefly about stopping her when she finally stopped and removed her hands from Astrid's body and quietly got back to her feet. "Well, she didn't break any bones when she hit the floor but she has a small knot on her head that will hurt her for a bit." She said as she looked at him.

He blinked at her for a moment before feeling his jaw go slack just a little bit as realization finally hit him.

She hadn't been feeling Astrid up like he had initially thought. No- she'd been searching for injuries! Skye knew how to treat wounds. Perhaps even better than any human he had come across. Possibly because of what she was as well as her age.

After all if she was of a really long lived species of hybrids, then she could have hundreds upon hundreds or even thousands upon thousands of years of healing knowledge in that pretty head of hers.

"She's going to need medicinal berries made into a tea to help her head from hurting." She said as he managed to finally shake himself and pick his jaw up off of the floor.

"O-Oh. Yeah?" He questioned, unable to actually think of anything intelligent to say at that exact moment in time. If she said that Astrid would need medicinal herbs to help out with knot on her head- then he really had no choice but to believe her since she obviously seemed to know more about healing than he did.

It never once occurred to him to ask if the berries were safe for human's to use.

But then he trusted her enough to like to think that she didn't have any ill intentions towards Astrid since she wasn't exactly acting like she did.

He supposed that he would have to double check her information with Toothless since the darned reptile seemed to know more about her than he was letting on.

Skye nodded her head at him and turned and called for Toothless. Hiccup blinked as his dragon came tearing into the hut's bed room and skidded to a stop just shy of where she was standing, his long tail going around his body and sort of accidentally wound itself around Hiccup's legs and knocked his poor off of his feet with a yelp.

Both Toothless and Skye cringed a little bit as Hiccup hit the floor on his back an lay there alternating between groans and oaths.

Seriously, that fucking hurt. Hiccup thought as he blunk back tears of pain as he reached up to touch his head where he must have struck it on the floor as he vaguely heard Skye say, "Perhaps Toothless and I should go and get the herbs needed while you stay here with Astrid and try to keep her from panicking again once she wakes."

It was a fair suggestion. Hiccup supposed, if one didn't take into account that there were dragon hunters running amok everywhere capturing rare and interesting dragons. As well as the fact that Skye was pregnant with his child/children and as such he didn't dare let her go off where he couldn't easily find her.

Not even if Toothless was with her.

It wasn't that he didn't trust his friend. After all Toothless was a force of nature unto himself. A dragon of impeccable combat capabilities. So him not trusting his friend wasn't the issue here. It was more like...he didn't trust everyone else. Not the dragon hunters.

Not the wild dragons that lived on Dragon's Edge.

And _certainly not_ the ninnies that he so often mistakenly called(*cough* Snotlout, Tuffnut, Ruffnut *cough*) his friends.

Slowly pushing himself upright just in case he began to get dizzy or something, after all, head wounds were tricky. He slowly, _very_ slowly just in case the mere action of doing so caused him to get nauseous- he shook his head no before saying.

"No. You're my mate, and your carrying my child/children. You will not leave my sight."

"But-" Skye started to say, tempted to point out that specific head wounds have been known to kill stronger men with iron like wills such as her mate, however thought best not too since he did make a valid point.

She was his mate- even if the bond was incomplete for the moment- and she was carrying his young. It was natural for him to be so fiercely protective. After all her mating him was bringing out specific dragon characteristics that had long lain dormant in his blood.

The blood that they both undoubtedly shared.

"Very well, we will go and collect the herbs-"

"And get you some things to eat." He made a point of saying. Meaning that their trip would take just a little bit longer than she had initially planned. However she sighed and nodded her head in agreement knowing that arguing with him would do nothing but upset him.

Besides, if her mate was anything like her- and she would bet that he was- then he was one of the most stubborn creatures that had ever walked the earth.

Aside from his dragon brethren that is.


	18. Chapter 18

A short time later, Hiccup was on his feet and grabbed Skye's hand and led her over to the farthest side of the wall of his room. The one in the back where no one could see the secret door that he had built into his hut for quick and hasty escapes.

Now he would never willingly admit it, especially to himself, but sometimes having such things built into his home proved to be handy. Especially when he needed to escape quietly and without being seen.

He'd grown up with such doors built into the walls of his hut back home on Berk. Mainly because when he had been younger and weaker- some people had tried to murder him in an crazed attempt to wrest power from his father. After all, he _was_ his dad's only living child.

He said only living because his two older brothers and younger sister had all been killed by both illness and war.

So naturally after the first few attempts on his life- his father had become paranoid that he'd be taken from him as well. And since Stoick had never been the sort of man to sit idly by and do nothing, he had had a special hut built not far from his own for Hiccup to live in once he was old enough to look after himself with little help from others.

And in that hut...had been nine different doors. Each one carefully concealed so that they looked like just any other wall or shelf or floor board. Each one opening up to a small closet or passage that easily led out of his hut.

His dad had never known it, but he had often used those escape routes to leave the village alone and unarmed so that he could collect raw materials for his smith work and inventions. Of course if his dad ever managed to find out about that- he'd probably wring his neck.

Still the point he was trying to make at present was that it paid to have such things in his home. Especially since now that he was older and shaping up to be a man worthy of being the future chieftain of Berk and he had much to be paranoid about.

Like Snotlout, and the Loki loving twins and all their craziness. With them around he had every reason to worry. After all with friends like them, who the hell needed enemies?

Pushing the door open wide enough for Toothless to slip through, he waited until the Nightfury was clear before dragging Skye out, slowly behind him and then set his hands on her hips and lifted her up until she was sitting on Toothless's back. And then quickly swung himself up on the dragon's back behind her. Lightly patting Toothless on the neck, he heard the other's yelling and such from the inside of his hut and bit back a smirk as he whispered for Toothless to 'go'.

The dragon took off so fast he nearly gave Hiccup whiplash.

An endeavor that Hiccup was beginning to suspect was the Nightfury's new life long goal. Either that or he was attempting to show off for Skye since he never moved quite so quickly unless there was food involved.

Whatever the reason, Hiccup took it for what it was. An opportunity to wrap his arms around Skye's slender waist and place one hand protectively over her stomach, right where his child/children were resting within her.

They must have flown for several minutes before Skye leaned forward- partially dragging him with her as she did so- and told Toothless to land. Toothless landed moments later, flaring his wings just as wide as they would go to slow their descent before touching foot on the ground.

Once on the ground again, Hiccup was reluctant to release his grip on Skye's waist- however knew that he had too other wise nothing that they had come to this area to do, would get done.

They wouldn't be able to collect any medicinal berries and herbs _or_ let him catch something for Skye to eat since the dried meat, fruit slices and nuts he'd given her before hadn't exactly been plentiful.

So he supposed that it was a good thing that there was a nice water spot nearby as well as plenty of lush vegetation.

Carefully helping Skye slide down off of Toothless's back, she turned to the dragon and let out a low chirp that he was quickly starting to understand as her 'order' or 'request' chirp- which sent Toothless off towards the water where he waded in until he vanished underneath the water.

"What did you send Toothless off to do?" He asked curiously after a moment or so of silent observation. Skye gave him a sweet smile and nodded in the direction of the water that Toothless had vanished in and said.

"I asked him to help you get a few nice fat tuna fish. Enough to possibly feed all of us when we return to your keep. I thought perhaps Astrid may do better if we included the rest of your friends in my introduction/conversation. After all, it must be done anyways. And all of them would feel less threatened this way."

"T-That's a nice plan. Very well thought out. Except for one thing."

She looked at him questioningly as he leaned into her personal space a little bit and said, "They sort of want to dissect you for study."

Skye blinked at him but said nothing. Instead she simply reached up and gently stroked her fingertips along the slight curve of his face lovingly and then replied, "Worry not. I can defend myself if need be." He captured her hand in his and pressed her palm against his lips as he just stared at her.

Trying to imagine exactly just what she could do to 'defend' herself.

So far he was coming up with mental images of a tiny, cute little bunny- ripping someone's arm off with razor sharp little fangs. Frankly he didn't know where that particular thought came from, but it was almost as disturbing as it was delightful.

Especially if the person losing their limb was either Snotlout or Tuffnut.

Yeah, that could work.

"For future reference, if you plan to rip someone's arms off... Start with Snotlout and Tuffnut. They need their arms the least," He said before frowning and tacking on a hasty, "I think."

Skye gave him a mischievous smile as she took his hand in hers and said, "Good to know who is least useful." Giving Hiccup the impression of a million Loki day pranks being pulled on the guys all at once and earning a soft laugh from him as she tugged him along behind her as she moved over to some of the bushes and then stopped.

Vaguely noting that his fingers had at some point laced themselves with her own. Creating a pleasantly warm sensation in the general vicinity of her chest.


	19. Chapter 19

**Warning rape is in this chapter- potential triggers too. I tried to be vague about things but you can only be so vague about something without just coming out and saying it.**

 **Anyways, I wanted to do a bit of Skye's past.**

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Hiccup remained quiet as Skye found and collected the berries needed to treat head pain. They didn't appear to be anything special at first, but once Skye explained how they worked when boiled in water with a few other things- well, saying he was impressed would be a vast understatement.

As it turned out he had been right about her knowledge of treating injuries and such.

She had even admitted as much when he had asked about what she knew. And while admitting that she was knowledgeable, he had also learned that she was thousands, upon thousands of years old.

And not truly a hybrid either.

She was a dragon that had been captured as a hatchling and used in a pagan ritual that had bound her to her current form. A fact that he found both appalling and very interesting at the same time.

Apparently from what she could recall of the pagan ritual and why she had been bound to her current form- had something to do with the fact that thousand's and thousands of years ago...the dragons had been dying out.

Frowning as he listened to the story of how she came to be, Hiccup made sure to pay careful attention to his mate's story.

So, dragons had been dying out- and since back then they hadn't been at war with man but rather the keepers of their most valued treasures. Gold, gems, ivory, pearls- and of course, scrolls and ancient texts of knowledge believed to be as old as time itself.

They were meant to help human's grow and evolve and learn. But only if they proved themselves worthy of their help, usually this was done by challenging a dragon in a duel called, Trial by fire.

It was never meant to be a duel to the death, though both sides lost many lives and shed more than their fair share of blood. Anyways, as time passed- the guardians and keepers of knowledge were dying out. No one knew why at first, in fact it took the race to reach near extinction before anyone dared to brave certain perils. Such as entering the Queen mother's nest since she was the oldest and most knowledgeable of the dragons and could likely tell man why their companions were dying out so suddenly.

Apparently upon entering the Queen mother's nest- the ones whom had been designated to learn why the dragon's were dying out- found nothing but the Queen mother's bones.

Horrified by the fact that the once believed to be immortal dragon had at some point perished, the men began to look for clues as to what had caused her demise and found nothing but a single solitary creature.

An infant dragon, fresh from it's egg. Laying curled up against the Queen mother's remains in what appeared to be a meditative state.

Knowing that the infant would in some way be able to help with the rest of the race, they captured the baby by breaking one of it's wings to keep it from flying away. And then carried it back to their village where they informed everyone of their findings and what had to be done if they were to save the rest of the dragons.

Skye could not tell him much about the ritual itself since she only recalled being drugged. But even Hiccup was well aware that his ancient forefathers used blood sacrifices of both animals and humans alike in most of their rituals.

But she was able to tell him of vaguely hearing the cries and screams of females.

 _Human females_.

And when she finally awoke from her drugged sleep, she was no longer a dragon in the true sense. The ritual had been used along with the blood sacrifices of fifty of her brethren and over a thousand virgin girls captured from all over the country side.

Each one ranging in age from eleven winters of age to sixteen.

After that she had been held by the pagans for a few years, a captive that they treated as a deity. And when her first mating heat occurred...

She had been put in chains and led to a stone alter outside of the village where they had cut what clothing that she used to cover herself with, from her body and she had then been chained down to the alter on her back where they had then decided to breach her innocence to make it easier for her to take the dragon males that she would be bred by.

Of course at that time Skye had had no concept of just how wrong what everything being done to her was. She had simply been too young.

Little more than a child of ten winters in appearance.

And the heat had been so very, very hard. She had been scared- with no one to explain what was happening to her and prepare her for what was to come. By the time the men who had taken her to the alter had finished chaining her down and decided to breach her.

She had been in so much pain and feeling so much fear that she hadn't been able to pay attention to the men stripping from their robes and then climbing on top of her.

Hiccup felt himself tensing up as he stared at her in horror. His mind sputtering to a stop in an effort not to soak up what she told him next.

The first time she had been breached- she had been terrified by the sensation of something being torn inside of her. She had screamed, and cried and tried to thrash from under the first man sweaty body only for him to find his completion within her womb.

Only for him to roll off of her and be replaced by another and another and another until each of them had had a turn. After which she had felt her self beginning to slip into unconsciousness only for the first group of dragons to be brought over to breed her.

She didn't recall anything after that aside from being bred every time she went into heat until she was old enough to understand that what the human's were doing was wrong. After which she had escaped, after killing every male in the village that had ever taken pleasure in her pain, that is.

She had then left the village in flaming ruins and spent many a year after trying to avoid humans. Up until she had been found by her first mate.

Razor. The first ever Nightfury that she had ever come upon.

He had been ancient in his own right. Yet still young enough to feel a strange fascination towards the weird little drogoesque creature that he had stumbled upon. In fact, Toothless reminded her quite a bit of him.

But that was neither here nor there.

Turning her head to glance at Hiccup she found him looking at her with the most peculiar expression on his handsome face. It was sadness. Deep and abiding, mixed with just enough horror for her to feel comforted by the fact that her human mate was such a kind hearted person.

But then again, she would expect nothing less of one of her bloodline.

Hiccup clenched his teeth for several moments as he tried to think of what to say before finally closing his eyes and saying in an uneasy tone. "You must hate humans for what they did."

Skye reached out to lay her hand against his cheek when he stepped back away from her a little bit. Not quiet beyond her reach, but at the same time not as close as he had been before as he waited for her to respond. Making her question the wisdom of telling him about her past.

But at the time with how little he knew of her, and the fact that they were mates- she had felt that it was merely something that he needed to know. After all, as much as males hated knowing that their women had been brutalized. They hated being lied too and misled even more.

It had something to do with their ego. Or was it more to do with their pride?

It was one of the two, she just couldn't recall which.

"I can no more hate human's than I could hate innocent children who know no better." She finally said to him. Earning a strange look from Hiccup who seemed to consider her words before reaching out and carefully, as if she were made of fragile newly spun glass, slipped his fingers around her own.

"If I ever do anything that reminds you of-" He couldn't say it. It made him feel sick to his stomach even think about it. She cocked her head and gave him a questioning look as he finally continued. "If I ever do anything to remind you of those _people_ ," He spat the word as if it were a curse. "Tell me so that I can stop doing whatever it is that reminds you of them."

"Alright." Skye said gently knowing that it was important to him to know that he was different from those men of ages past as she slipped her fingers from his grasp again so that she could move over to what looked like a willow tree. And slid her sharp claw like nails under a sliver of bark and pulled it from the trunk of the tree and then turned back to Hiccup and held it up with a smile.

Deciding to collect a bit more herbs in an attempt to lighten the mood between them a little bit. Skye brought the good sized piece of willow bark back to him and handed it over so that he could put it into the medium sized leather satchel that he wore at his hip along with several hand full's of the earlier collected berries.

"There's some herbal grass not far from here and some flowers that help to relax a person and help them rest. I could get some of them. They aren't far." She suggested.

Hiccup regarded her with his undivided attention as he mulled over her words, and came to the decision that having such things may help them sometime further on down the line. "Alright. But make sure that you stay close to me." He said as he pulled a small dagger from his belt that his father had had Gobber make for him when he had turned fifteen winter's. As both a coming of age/birthday present.

It was solid gold with ornate introwoven vines carved into the flat of the blade on both sides, with little blood red rubies embedded in the hilt. All in all it was as thoughtful a gift as it was useful since he'd had to use it three times to date to defend his life.

"Lead the way." He said as he slowly turned the blade so that the safe end of it was pointed towards Skye and waited for her to take it from him.

She slowly took it from his hand, careful to move slowly so that she didn't knick his skin or split it open with the sharp blade and nodded her head. Estimating that they had at least another few minutes before Toothless returned to land with his catches.


	20. Chapter 20

While Hiccup and Skye were off somewhere gathering plants and herbs used for healing.

Toothless was gliding through the deep fathoms of the cove that opened up underwater allowing specific sea life to pour into the dark waters. Using his sonar, he had been able to find a school of fat tuna fish and had already managed to catch four of them and was on his way back towards the shore when something snapped at the tip of his tail with razor sharp teeth.

Half turning so that he could see what it was that had dared almost take the tip of his tail off, he found himself staring at a fish almost as big as he was.

Absently biting down on the tails of the tuna he'd caught in his mouth, Toothless weighed the pros and cons of going after such a huge fish. But the choice was quickly taken from him when the blasted thing circled and began swimming towards him again.

It's mouth opening wide. Showing off long sharp retractable teeth very much like Toothless's own.

Causing the dragon to panic for a second as he twisted around and began swimming just as fast as he could with the stupid fish tearing through the waters right after him.

He got a good ten feet from the shore, his head breaking the surface of the water as it became shallower, which made it difficult to know where the damned fish was going to attempt to get him from.

Behind? The side? Underneath?

Dunking his head back into the water Toothless chanced a look and was almost caught by the things jaws when it suddenly came at him from the side. However Toothless was a pretty agile dragon for something so big and yet small at the same time and was able to twist himself out of harms way just enough to avoid being bitten in half around his middle.

And used a powerful swipe of his tail to send the massive fish flying out of the water, into the air and onto land several feet from the water before finally ambling out a few feet from the thrashing beast where he dropped his catches and then moved over to the bigger fish and opened his mouth- sending out a plasma blast aimed at it's head. Frying it's brain without breaking it's skin.

Skye should be happy eating it's brains since fish brains were good for female dragons while pregnant.

They were very nutritious.

Suddenly feeling jealous of the fact that Skye would get to eat fish brains and various meats, Toothless ran his tongue along the top row of his teeth and wondered idly if he'd be able to get away with taking a nibble or two. But quickly decided against it since Skye would likely need every ounce of nutritious food that she could get.

Besides- as a reward for making the kill- he'd probably get it's heart and possibly a few fat enriched organs.

In the meantime he supposed that he was going to sit quietly and wait for his human and Skye to return so that they could leave.

(*******************************************************************************************************************************)

Hiccup watched Skye carefully collect some grass and flowers before dropping to the ground and using her claw like finger nails to dig into the earth until she was able to collect several roots for the grass and flowers previously collected. Stating that it would be wise to take some roots back with them so that they could plant them and grow their own herbs so that the next time the needed them, they wouldn't have to leave the keep to go and get them.

Besides, there would be times when they would be unable to leave to go collecting the herbs.

And she was right to assume such. Hiccup mused as she finished collecting the last bit of roots for both plants and handed them to him to be put away and then dusted off her hands.

"We should probably head back." She said.

Hiccup made an inaudible sound in the back of his throat as he considered her words before finally saying, "Not just yet. There should be some deer close by. I want to get one before we head back." Taking his dagger back from her, Hiccup placed it back in the sheath attached to his belt as he retook her hand and began walking a little bit further into the woods until they reached a semi clear area here they both saw an entire group of deer.

Male and female, young and old. All grazing together as Hiccup moved them downwind of the animals to keep them from being smelled.

Making sure to keep his every movement slow and carefully controlled so as not to alarm the animals, he left her sitting on the ground behind some bushes while he slowly sidled up to an impressive looking two hundred and eighty to three hundred pound buck, and then stilled when the animal lifted it's head to look around.

It moved around in place for a second, digging it's hooves into the soft dirt as Hiccup patiently waited for the beast to settle down and go back to grazing. It took a little longer than desired, but once the deer managed to do as Hiccup had been waiting on it to do- he slid his dagger from it's sheath again and then struck.

Somehow leaping up on the animal's back and wrapping an arm around it's neck while he used the dagger to slit it's throat. The buck barely had ample time to react much less attempt to buck him off or maim him before falling onto the ground dead.

Shortly after which, Hiccup climbed up from the ground and looked around as if surprised that he was still in one piece and then looked in her direction, noting that Skye was partially in and out of her hiding place in the bushes, her eyes wide.

He smiled at her and yelled out, "Look what I caught for lunch!" Earning an eye roll from her as she disappeared back into the bushes, causing him to snort in amusement as he muttered, "Women."


	21. Chapter 21

**Sorry for the semi lateness of the update.**

 **I had a bad seizure and have been sick most of the day. And on top of that I haven't really had a chance to get some sleep.**

 **I've been up for almost thirty something hours without rest. So I'm going to try laying down and attempt another update later today.**

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A short time later Hiccup and Skye returned to the place where Toothless had been left, carrying a large freshly killed deer and a leather satchel full of medicinal herbs.

"Hey boy," Hiccup called out as Toothless slowly got to his feet and began chirping at them in an annoyed manner. "I guess it would be dumb to ask if you had been waiting long, huh?"

Toothless growled at him for a moment as Skye walked up to him and gently laid a hand on the side of his neck and looked at the tuna that he had caught as well as the overly large beast of a fish. "Well, you've been busy." She said, feeling more than a little bit proud of her little Nightfury.

Toothless chirped happily as he told her about the big fish that had tried to attack him. Taking full pride in his kill.

 _As he should_ , Skye told herself.

Especially when the fish he was speaking of was one of the kind that could actually devour dragons and become land wandering beasts that attacked indiscriminately and ate animals and people alike. So naturally, Toothless should feel proud of managing to kill such a thing. Skye thought to herself as she chirped at him a bit.

Telling him how brave and strong he was. Including how proud she was to be his mother in with her message as Hiccup walked over, looked at the tuna- then the monster fish from hell- then cast a slight glance at his deer and wrinkled his nose a bit.

Herbs and such aside, the deer and the fish made quite a haul.

Frankly speaking, Hiccup and the other dragon riders may not need to hunt again for a while.

A few days at the most. Which was fine by him since he wasn't feeling all that inclined to leave Skye's side until everything with the others was resolved and he knew that there was no impending threat towards her or his child/children's safety and wellbeing.

"Wow. Good job Toothless." Hiccup said as he carefully regarded the beast like fish and all the fat tuna strewn about. "Someone will be getting something good to eat tonight." He said as he reached out and patted his dragon affectionately on the tip of his nose causing the Nightfury to preen and purr.

Skye made a soft cooing sound at Toothless in agreement with Hiccup's words as Toothless gave the both of them his famous toothy smile.

The one that he was famous for because it made him look deranged.

Putting the dead buck down on the ground, Hiccup pulled a long tether made of several strands of incredibly strong, thin strands of braided leather and began to tie the small group of large fish each by the tail so that they would be easier to carry back to the keep.

It only took several moments, and once he was finished, he began the somewhat tedious work of placing everything across Toothless's back before turning to Skye and holding his hand out to her so that he could pull her in close enough to place her back onto Toothless's back just a smidgen behind the fish and deer carcasses.

And once he was sure that she was comfortably in place, he swung himself up on Toothless's back behind her and wrapped his arms around her slender waist and gave the command for Toothless to fly.

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Fishlegs and the other dragon riders watched a hysterical Astrid pace back and forth as she told them about what had happened when she had snuck into Hiccup's hut. Not bothering to spare any details, she informed them of everything. And I do mean _everything_.

The state of Hiccup's undress. The fact that he was _inside_ of the hybrid.

Screwing her as if she were Berk's village whore or something.

Those weren't her exact words... It was merely the words that Snotlout and Tuffnut supplied their minds with since they couldn't see Hiccup doing such things with anything that wasn't human. After all, that was like mating with a yak. And while in some village's that was an outstanding practice- it wasn't one that was well practiced back home.

And then there was the somewhat one sided conversation she'd had before fainting (which she _still_ was in denial over despite having been found after Hiccup's vanishing act- unconscious. after all, good Vikings didn't faint!) the one where Hiccup had introduced the hybrid girl as his mate.

Mate!

She still didn't know what the hell that meant but she was fairly certain that it wasn't good.

Fishlegs however seemed to disagree with her, stating very clearly for everyone to hear that in theory if the girl really was part human then it was completely understandable- and not outside the realm of possibility- that the hybrid could in fact actually be Hiccup's mate.

That they, like many dragons, could have a mating bond of some kind in which case they needed to leave the girl alone otherwise Hiccup wouldn't hesitate to kill them.

Astrid gaped at the blond Viking as if he were insane. Which he very well might have been. He'd been spending an unusual amount of time with the twins of late.

Hiccup may be a little out there (mate or no mate) but he would never in a million years hurt his friends. She was sure of it. Well... Sort of anyways.

But then Fishlegs made a point of pointing out the fact that if Hiccup had a mating bond with the hybrid then until it was completed- he would be volatile, unstable, even uncharacteristically violent towards anyone he saw as a threat towards the hybrid.


	22. Chapter 22

But then Fishlegs made a point of pointing out the fact that if Hiccup had a mating bond with the hybrid then until it was completed- he would be volatile, unstable, even uncharacteristically violent towards anyone he saw as a threat towards the hybrid.

He stopped speaking upon noting that everyone there was gaping at him in disbelief almost as if he was mad to even suggest such things of their future chieftain. But well, truth _was_ truth.

Hiccup had apparently at some point mistaken the hybrid for a human and (as unlikely as it was) mated with her which formed a mating bond with her that would lend him some of her dragon like qualities. The temper, the fierce loyalty and need to protect what was his would undoubtedly blend with other parts of his current personality.

Which is in part what would make him volatile and unstable.

But at the same time it would make him better. A better warrior. A better dragon trainer/handler. And inevitably once the bond was completed, a _much_ better leader and chieftain. Though he didn't bother voicing his thoughts on all of that since everyone was obviously in a state of either panic or disbelief.

"How do we sever the bond?" Astrid demanded all of a sudden. Causing Fishlegs to blink before thinking a moment and then replying.

"We can't. Not without either driving Hiccup insane or killing him anyways."

"What?! You mean he's stuck with that girl." Tuffnut said stupidly before looking at his twin sister and saying, "That's why I never plan to marry. I'm going to leave marriage and the whole baby making gig up to you, sis."

"It's for the best." Ruffnut muttered knowing that her brother wasn't exactly the sharpest sword around. So having him not marry or reproduce was probably for the best. Especially since the family name would die out if it was left up to him.

"So what do we do exactly if we can't break the mating bond between Hiccup and that thing."

"Her name is Skye," Astrid huffed as she blew her long bangs out of her eyes. "And I doubt at this point Hiccup would appreciate our interference. Especially if it's going to hurt or kill him."

"So that's it? We just leave him in the hands of that dragon/harpy girl?" Ruffnut asked, becoming more and more concerned for their future chieftain. After all, despite the fact that she pranked him- ever since they had first been taught to train their dragon's and saved Berk from the massive beast that had taken Hiccup's leg in battle... She grown rather attached to the younger kid.

Seeing him as something of- well not another brother (she already had one of those and he was enough of a pain in the neck) but more like a younger cousin several times removed.

Yeah that worked.

She could be as affectionate as she liked with him and none of it could be considered creepy. Which was great since she often absently helped straighten up his appearance when he was working too hard to pay attention to it himself. Going out of her way to wash some of his clothing and hang them out to dry, make sure his hair was carefully finger combed and even punched him in the ribs whenever he slouched.

Though she never punched him hard enough to actually hurt him.

She didn't have too. The mere action of being punched by her when he wasn't paying attention to his posture was startling enough to him.

"Alright so we can't break the bond. So now what?" Snotlout asked curiously deciding that he was still going to try and break Hiccup's mating bond with the hybrid. Just to see what would happen since he doubted Hiccup would do anything too bad to him.

After all, in his mind Hiccup was still the punny little guy that he'd bullied growing up.

"I think the best thing to do is to familiarize ourselves with... Skye, was it?" Fishlegs asked Astrid who crossed her arms over her chest and nodded in response before he continued to speak, "Because if Hiccup does have a mating bond going on between himself and the girl- then we need to get use to having her around since mating bonds are forever."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. What do you mean by forever?" Tuffnut asked.

Astrid growled a little bit and snapped, "He means that it lasts for life, idiot."

"Oh." Tuffnut said as if he understood even though his sort of vacant expression pretty much told everyone present that he didn't.

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Toothless landed just outside of the club house and meandered inside before Hiccup could so much as slide from his back, causing Hiccup to have to wait until his dragon came to a full stop before he bothered to move otherwise he would have wound up eating wood.

Once Toothless was still, he slid down from the dragon's back and then carefully helped Skye down before beginning to take the deer and fish off of Toothless so that he could drain, gut, skin, and fix them to be eaten soon since he knew that Skye had to be getting hungry by now for real food.

But before he could bother to start on doing those things- he first slipped the leather satchel full of herbs from his belt and handed them off to Skye and watched as she went over to the table across the room and set the satchel down and began unpacking it.

"How long will it take for you to make that berry tea that you mentioned?" He asked Skye curiously.

"Not long. Just a few minutes..." Skye said before asking him if she could have his dagger so that she could cut up some of the grass to mix in the tea with the berries. Hiccup nodded and slid his dagger from it's sheath and walked over to her and handed it to her then moved a little bit to the side so that he could watch her work before he could bother reclaiming his dagger.

The two of them worked quickly, she fixing the tea. And he with the dead animals until both yielded the desired results.

Skye was finishing up with the tea while Hiccup finished stripping the animals of their skin, organs, and was fixing several well proportioned pieces of fish and deer meat on a sit that hung over the fire pit in the middle of the room.

Once that was done, he took several moments to collect some wood from the pile against the side of the room and place the pieces in the pit so that he could build a fire to cook the meats before they went bad.

While Toothless took the opportunity to start munching on the various animal organs as Skye finally managed to search out the honey that was hidden in one of the shelves- likely to use to sweeten the somewhat bitter taste of the tea before taking a cup of it to Hiccup since she knew that his head had to be aching despite the fact that he said nothing of it.

Perhaps out of a misplaced concept of not wishing her to worry. Still, after hitting his head earlier, before they had left to get the medicinal herbs and such, she knew that his head had to be aching even the littlest bit.

"Here." She said softly as she placed a hand on his arm to gain his attention.

Turning his head to look at her, Hiccup noted the cup in her hand and dropped what wood was left in his hands into the pit so that he could take it from her.

"Thanks." He said as he brought the cup up to his lips and took a small sip.

The liquid was warm, not hot- thank Thor. Especially since he couldn't really stand overly hot drinks. It was also sweet with a slight tang to it. probably from the berries. Still, it was good. And he could feel the slight ache that had formed behind his eyes an hour or so ago, beginning to ease up a little bit already.

"Better?" Skye asked as she sensed some of the tension he'd been trying to hide from her before, leaving his body. Helping sooth the ache in his head a bit as it did so.

"Yeah. Much better." He said before turning to ask Toothless to start a fire in the pit so that he could begin cooking everyone's food when Skye stepped forward and blew a small fireball, startling him while starting the fire in the pit.

Hiccup stared at her wide eyed for a second before grunting and looking over at Toothless who had come to stand beside him. "S-So you can breathe fire." Hiccup said awkwardly after a moment or so. Skye gave him an peculiar look before pointing out,

"I never said that I couldn't." Which was true. Besides, she had thought that the whole conversation she had had earlier while they were gathering food and medicine would have covered that. But obviously her mate was somewhat put out by the notion that she could breathe fire at any time she liked.

Possibly because he was worried that she would use such an ability on him. And while she would usually laugh such a thing off as amusing and attempt to put her mate's fears to rest. She couldn't in good conscientious do so at the moment considering her pregnancy.

Especially since female dragons who were pregnant were supposedly a pain to deal with.

They were all moody and temperamental. Not that she would know from personal experience. She had always been rather pleasant to be around from what her other mates had always told her. But then male dragon's have never been bothered much by their pregnant female counterparts.

So really she didn't know what to believe.


	23. Chapter 23

Hiccup took a moment to absorb that particular little bit of information before asking awkwardly, "Okay. Good to know. Will you please tell me what else you can do?" Skye tilted her head as she considered his request as some of her long dark hair slipped over her slender shoulder before saying slowly,

"Very well. If that is what you wish- Then I shall indulge you. First off," She blew another small flame to demonstrate. "There's fire breath. Secondly, I have the ability to heal injuries and regenerate lost limbs. Both in myself and in others." She then turned and called for Toothless to come to her for a moment and upon his arrival she reached out and took hold of his tail and lifted it so that Hiccup could see the tail fin that she had regenerated for the Nightfury.

Taking a closer look at Toothless's tail, Hiccup studied the newly regrown fin and looked back at Skye in wide eyed amazement. "When did- How- Oh man, Toothless this is great!" Hiccup exclaimed as he wrapped an arm around the dragon's neck and his other arm around Skye and hugged them both.

He would never speak of it aloud, but ever since discovering the existence of the dragon hunters- Hiccup had been scared. Scared to go into combat against them. Scared that he may fall from Toothless's back and plunge to his death. But as much as those things scared him, nothing scared him more than the thought of Toothless being captured because he couldn't fly without Hiccup's man made fin and the gears and levers attached to his saddle to help keep him air born.

And now... Thanks to Skye he no longer needed to fear something happening to Toothless if anything should ever happen to him.

It was a massive weight lifted from his young shoulders. And he appreciated it greatly even though it could very well mean that someday far, far into the future- Toothless could very well leave him for good.

But that was alright, Hiccup knew that he could live with that if it was a choice that Toothless later made. He was after all meant to be free. So why would Hiccup feel any need to force him to stay? Besides, he wouldn't be a very good friend if he did.

He finished hugging the two and then slowly released them so that Skye could finish telling him what she was capable of.

It turns out that aside from what she had already demonstrated- like the fire breath, healing and regenerating, plus her knowledge of healing human's of specific ailments, as well as her ability to fly- Skye could even return herself to her base form as a dragon. But it was only temporary seeing as the pagan ritual that had been done to her basically bound her to her current form.

That and returning to her true form could only be done under specific conditions.

Mating.

Birthing.

Life threatening injury.

And of course battle.

Any reason beyond those conditions hurt her greatly. Though neither she didn't fully understood _why_. She did mention that it shortened her lifespan a bit. As if the ancient magic's binding her to her current form ate away at her life. Slowing devouring years, weeks, months, days, and hours.

When Hiccup asked if she had ever changed back to her former dragon form outside of the conditions, and if so- how long had she stayed in that form before she had had to revert back? As well as how many years had she lost.

The answer was simple.

Of course she had at least once or twice.

Once had been with the conditions in play. And the second time, had been without them. She had stayed in her true form for just as long as her body could withstand the pain. Which had been for about three days.

She then went on to tell him that she had estimated that during that time she had lost at least five years off of her natural lifespan. And as such couldn't afford to waste her life. So she had merely gone back to her current form and stayed that way regardless of the dangers it presented.

Hiccup could understand where she was coming from. Possessing a form such as her own was like handling a double edged sword. On one side, there was safety in the somewhat peculiar sense of normalcy she projected when one looked at her appearance. And on the other side- there was the fact that she was so shockingly beautiful and exotic looking.

Hiccup was well aware of how evil humans could be. He knew well of the horrors they visited upon others because they were attention grabbing due to their appearances or exoticness.

And it was for this very reason that he worried about Skye and their unborn child/children.

Skye alone could defend herself if needed. But their baby? Would it have any of the abilities she had? And if so how was he to protect them from evil humans?

A shield and sword and dragon would only get him so far before he would have them ripped from him in one way or another, leaving him all but helpless.

It was a thought that he didn't particularly like. After all, feeling helpless had always left him feeling especially angry and bitter about circumstances. The same could be said especially now that he had more than just Toothless and his friends to worry about.

Giving Skye a quick kiss on the cheek, Hiccup began to brush by her as he made a beeline for the door of the club house. Pausing only momentarily to look back and tell Skye what he was going to do. Which was to search out and gather the others, before quickly tacking on that she should make sure that Toothless didn't eat any of the meat cooking over the fire pit.

Toothless growled at him in response to his words as Skye merely waved him off. Deciding that it was best to end their little conversation there.


	24. Chapter 24

Walking towards his hut, Hiccup didn't have to look far for the others. They were all inside his home, talking. Which in itself wasn't exactly an ominous thing except for the fact that they were all talking about him _and_ Skye. So naturally this sent up red flags in his mind.

Mainly due to the fact that if they were talking about him and Skye and their relationship.

Which he translated into trouble, trouble, trouble and Snotlout was obviously going to be green with envy by the time they were done and would probably attempt to take Skye from him. In which case he'd have to hurt him.

 _Badly_.

Especially since he doubted that Snotlout would bother asking or taking no for an answer and he didn't want Skye to relive the darker bits of her past due to the ignorance of others.

Walking up to the window leading into his bedroom, Hiccup leaned in a little bit and smiled when Fishlegs saw him and stopped speaking. "Hey guys. What's up?" He said after a heartbeat or so of silence. Every one turned as one, with the exception of Fishlegs since he was facing him, and looked at him with varying expressions of anger, irritation, concern and yup- right there clear as day before Odin and everyone to see- was envy on Snotlout's face.

"Where the hell have you been?" Astrid shrieked since she was the first to recover.

"Out with Skye. After you interrupted us earlier and then fainted- you hit your head pretty hard when you fell. She was worried so we went to go get some medicinal herbs to help with any discomfort you may feel. By the way, how are you feeling?"

Astrid flushed and sputtered out that her head ached a little but it was nothing that she couldn't live with as Snotlout shoved her out of the way and caused her to almost stumble and fall. Or at least she would have fallen, if Ruffnut hadn't have grabbed her while Snotlout crossed his arms over his chest and glared at him.

"Something you need Snotlout?" Hiccup inquired in a bored tone.

"Where's the hybrid?"

"Hanging out in the clubhouse with Toothless. Not that it's any of _your_ business." Hiccup said offhandedly before looking at Fishlegs and asked him curiously. "Do you have any on hand knowledge of dragon pregnancy and births?"

"Um... A little bit. Why?"

"Skye's pregnant." Hiccup said quickly before tacking on, "The baby's mine." Shocking the hell out of everyone with the exception of Fishlegs who had apparently seemed to have given things a bit more thought than the others had.

"When did you mate with her?"

"The other night when Toothless disappeared and I went after him. I saw Skye in a clearing, talking to him and thought for a moment that she must be a dragon hunter or something. But..."

"But?"

"Well I attacked her and one thing led to another and before I realized it I had mated with her thinking that she was just some girl. I found out late last night before I brought her back with me that she was suffering through a dragon's heat."

"Then chances are _very_ good that she is pregnant." Fishlegs muttered to himself before bothering to ask, "Are we sure that she can have human young?"

"I am," Hiccup said in his most sure tone as he nodded his head a bit. "She told me a bit of her history while we were gone. And apparently I'm not the first human to ever lay with her. So I'm betting that that means that she is very capable of having human children."

"Interesting."

"Yeah," Hiccup said in agreement before asking, "So are you guys going to join us at the clubhouse or hang out here? Cause if you do come with us... We can take care of Astrid's headache and grab some food too since Toothless and I both hunted some nice stuff for lunch."

It was at this point that Ruffnut slowly began to come around as she shoved Snotlout out of the way and said in a slight daze, "A baby? Your going to be a dad?"

Hiccup grinned at her knowing that the older girl had always had a peculiar soft spot for little babies and kids. "Yep."

"Is it a boy or a girl?"

"Dunno. We could try asking Skye and see if she knows." Hiccup said easily since it was a fairly well known fact that most dragons knew the genders of their offspring before they were even born. Apparently anything from eating habits and cravings to mood swings helped them know what they were birthing a majority of the time.

"Which would you prefer?" Ruffnut asked curiously, not quite ready to drop the subject just yet as the wheels in her head began to turn.

Hiccup shrugged his shoulders and thought that he couldn't care less whether he had a male or female as long as the child was healthy. "Either is fine by me."

"What are you going to name it?"

"Dunno."

"Well you need to figure it out! You're going to be a dad- You can't be so blasé about the topic of your own kid or your girl is going to think you don't care!" She admonished him. Hiccup blinked at her as she grabbed his window sill and all but climbed through it while yelling at him.

Once she was out of his hut and standing next to him, he finally laughed.

"It isn't funny Hiccup." Ruffnut growled as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"I-I know it isn't. That isn't why I'm laughing. I'm laughing because your adorable." He said inbetween breaths as his laughter slowly died down.

Ruffnut gaped at him as her brother suddenly came out of the hut through the window and swung his fist at Hiccup's face. Hiccup, knowing that his friend would likely misunderstand what he had meant by his comment- and would undoubtedly come to his sister's defense- quickly side stepped causing Tuffnut to swing all the way around and punch Snotlout in the stomach as soon as he managed to slip out of the hut through the same window.

"Omph!"

"Oh shit! Sorry Snotlout. I didn't mean to punch you." Tuffnut said as Fishlegs and Astrid came out of his hut- via his front door.

 _Well at least some people have manners._ He thought as Snotlout made to lunge for Tuffnut so that he could throttle him when everyone froze upon hearing a loud whistle from several feet away. And turned to find Skye standing there with some skewered deer meat fresh from the fire pit, held in one hand as she looked over the group for a moment before turning to Hiccup and firmly stating that the food was done, could they please hurry up before she decided to eat it all.

Understanding that she was probably beginning to wear a bit thin due to her hunger, Hiccup gave her a small smile an nodded his head before turning to everyone else and motioning for them to come as he move to walk beside his mate.


	25. Chapter 25

**Sorry that I didn't have this chapter done last night- I had to go to bed early due to a doctor's appointment today.**

 **One that took over 4 flipping hours just to finally get out of.**

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Once back at the clubhouse, Skye began to move from his side only to pause for a moment to fidget. Before reaching out and grasping the front of Hiccup's shirt so that she could pull him down a bit for a quick kiss before everyone finally filed into the clubhouse after the two.

Skye went to seat herself on one of the bench's by the fire pit as Toothless made his way over to her and coiled his long tail around her slender waist as she began eating the slightly raw meat on the skewer in her hand. Not really caring if anyone thought her eating habits atrocious or weird.

 _She was starving._ She had been for a while now, and it was a good thing that her mate had had the foresight to decide to go hunting otherwise she probably might have lost what composure she had in regards to his friends.

Which would have been bad since she normally wasn't a creature inclined to devour human's like her offspring undoubtedly had over the millennia. Not only that but there were only two edible looking humans that were plump and gamey looking to even appeal to her dragon senses.

Which she supposed was somewhat fortunate for the rest of the scrawny bunch-

"Hi." A distinctly feminine voice said from her...right? She blinked and turned her head to glance at the person speaking and caught her mate smirking at her. _What the-_ She thought as she finally settled her gaze on the person who had spoken to her. A pale eyed girl with near waist length soft bland hair and two braids hanging over her slender shoulders. The girl flushed under her silent scrutiny, apparently not sure what to think of her looking her over and gave her a somewhat shy smile before saying, "M-My name is Ruffnut. H-Hiccup said that you're going to have a baby."

 _Ah- I see_. Skye thought in amusement as the girl continued to speak. "D-Do you know if it'll be a boy or girl?" Skye could practically see the girl was fair to bursting at the seams with excitement, though she had managed to hide the fact incredibly well.

Taking one last bite to finish off her food, she set the skewer aside and took a moment to think on the girl's question. Normally after her prior mating's she birthed a female first. But that was usually among dragon's since the number of available females was far lower than that of the males.

However when mating with human's it was more often than not difficult to tell the gender of her offspring before birth. But then again... She glanced at her mate as he got up out of his seat to fetch her skewer so that he could put some more meat on it so that she could eat a bit more. And made the mistake of accidentally handing his lunch off to her as he moved to the table across the room to do so.

Looking down for a second at the new food in her hands, she shrugged, thinking nothing of it and began to eat it too before finally saying, "When having young with human's it's tricky to tell the offspring's gender. But chances are pretty good that I'll either birth a female or a set of twins."

Hiccup tripped over his own feet upon hearing this and almost face planted at her feet on the floor while returning with her fresh meat. His heart stammering in his chest at the thought of having a daughter or even a set of twins to hold in his arms... Children to love and call his pride and joy- shockingly the affection that he already felt for these unnamed and faceless children- nearly overwhelmed him as he slowly pushed himself up to find Skye's eyes locked on his form.

What was left of his lunch skewer being nibbled on while Ruffnut all but shoved a startled Toothless back away from her as she attached herself to her.

Her slender arms going around Skye's neck and hugging her as Toothless let out an indignant sound and flared his wings in annoyance.

Skye however seemed to take everything in stride. Not really caring that she had one of the twins now seemingly attached to her person like a leech as Hiccup got up off of the floor and looked at his mate for a second before thinking, _I'm going to have to go hunting again soon._

Trying to take into account how quickly dragon pregnancies progressed.

From what he knew, then the typical dragon pregnancy lasted two to five or six months. Depending on the breed of dragon pregnant at the time.

Setting the skewer to cook over the fire pit, he then turned to Skye to ask her how long she would remain pregnant and almost recoiled in shock when he found that Fishlegs and Tuffnut had appeared and attached themselves to her in a hug as well.

While Astrid had walked up and seemed to be hesitant to join in the group hug- instead choosing to merely reach out and ruffle Skye's hair like one would a younger sibling as she said,

"I'm sorry about before. My assumptions were based purely on what I believed I needed to protect Hiccup from. It was wrong and unfair to you. So- Anytime you need my sword or ax, let me know." It was one of Astrid's more well thought out and less awkward apologies. Hiccup noted as he waited to see what his mate would say or do. After all she may not feel terribly forgiving.

Skye however surprised him by merely blinking at her for a second before carefully removing his former lunch skewer from her mouth and setting it aside as she nodded her head in acknowledgement of her words.

It was probably the closest she would come for a while to forming an actual attachment to Astrid. Which Hiccup understood. Now all he had to do was pry the others off of her so that she could have some breathing room while they took the time to talk a bit with everyone.

With his child/children on the way- things were going to be run a mite differently at Dragon's Edge. Especially since one of his main priorities now was to assign someone the task of guarding Skye from dragon hunters should they come under attack.

And at the moment- thee were only really three people aside from himself that he actually trusted to do right by him.

Astrid.

Ruffnut.

And Fishlegs.


	26. Chapter 26

Several weeks had passed since Hiccup had found himself mated to Skye and in that time, Skye's heat finally went away. And he had assigned Fishlegs and Ruffnut both to help keep an eye on and protect Skye. Which in itself wasn't bad since it was both the best and worst decision he ever could have made concerning her welfare.

He said best, because Fishlegs and Ruffnut were both very protective of Skye. So much so that when Tuffnut had tried to Loki Day prank her- his sister had entertained all of them while beating the hell out of her twin.

Tuffnut might have suffered more then just simple bruises. If Skye hadn't have physically pried the young woman off of her brother's back before she could do him some serious damage.

After which Tuffnut had actually _sworn-_ in tears no less _-_ never to bother Loki Day pranking Skye ever again.

And of course there was the worst part of his decision. The one where Ruffnut more or less punched him in either the arm, or stomach every time he tried to so much as touch her when she wasn't paying attention. Which in turn left Hiccup, understandably battered and covered in bruises that he oddly and confusingly enough- allowed Skye to treat with kisses and cuddling whenever they were alone.

Which in turn had sort of caused him to develop a little bit of a masochistic streak a mile deep. But that wasn't really anything new since he had used to have a crush on Astrid when they were younger.

Anyways- those things were neither here nor there.

Also in the past few weeks he and the others had been sticking closer to Dragon's Edge. Partially because they were down two riders and their numbers were thin at the moment, and partially because they had already seen an unusual spike in dragon hunter activity close to their home.

Which had led Hiccup to not only free the wild dragon's captured by the bastards. But to also sink each ship he came across in an effort to keep them from Dragon's Edge. Especially since the last thing he needed was anyone attempting to get their hands on his mate.

However due to the spike in activity, he was beginning to suspect that one of the riders had betrayed them and was giving the dragon hunters information. Especially after their latest encounter where Hiccup had actually heard one of the dragon hunter's refer to Skye by name.

Not only that but Snotlout kept disappearing at random, sometimes for hours at a time. And every time he tried to find out where he was going, Snotlout seemed to shake him and just disappear into thin air. Which of course frustrated Hiccup to no end.

So much so that late one night he had gone to the dragon pins and spoke with Hookfang and the other dragons about helping him keep an eye on Snotlout to make sure that he wasn't attempting to stir up trouble.

The dragons had agreed. Probably because of their protective nature towards their humans as well as Skye. Hiccup didn't really know which one it was- and he didn't really care as long as he got results.

So in the days that followed, he kept trying to keep tabs on Snotlout while Fishlegs and Ruffnut remained occupied with keeping up with Skye. Which in itself was far easier said than done due to the fact that she tended to wander off into the woods for one reason or another.

Not long after the first time it happened, the two had come running back to him to tell him what a horrible experience it had been to chase after her. Especially when she had gotten them lost while trying to lead them out of the woods and back to the keep only to find that she was seriously directionally challenged.

After which Hiccup had practically put her under house arrest just to keep her from the woods.

It didn't really work out well in his favor. Partially since she wasn't exactly a child and had a mind of her own that tended to lead her to places that in his belief, most human's should stay far, _far_ away from.

Dragon's okay. Human's not so much.

Anyways it was right around the fourth week since Skye and he had mated- which almost put her pregnancy at the one month mark and she was already developing a small bulge where her stomach was.

Something that he often enjoyed rubbing late in the evenings or early in the mornings before he went out to patrol around the island. On this particular morning, he had just finished up his breakfast...

Oh who was he kidding? He had barely managed to get more than half of his food eaten before he had turned his back and his mate had practically almost taken off his arm when she had snatched his food from him and practically inhaled it _and_ the dish that it had been on.

Shocking everyone present before Skye had said defensively, "What? I'm hungry." After which Hiccup had merely sighed and fished a piece of dried deer meat out of one of the leather pouches to eat in place of his once breakfast and quickly found that taken from his hand as well.

"Hey!" Hiccup said as he made to reach for his food only to have his hand smacked sharply by Ruffnut. "Ouch! What the hell Ruffnut?" He yelped as he stared at the older girl through furious green eyes. Skye was easy to forgive for taking his food away. She was eating for herself and possibly one or more offspring and was merely doing what women had done since the beginning of time to care for herself and her young.

Ruffnut however... Should not have smacked his hand like she had. Did she really think he would take away from his mate and unborn child/children? He may be partially starving due to lack of his current lack of sufficient food, but he was neither stupid nor cruel.

I mean he adored Skye. And he _loved_ his kid/kids. What was the point in caring for them if he didn't actually care for them?

"You shouldn't try to take food from you're girl."

Hiccup absently rubbed his stinging hand as he glared at the girl for a moment before growling out, _"I. Wasn't_. _Going._ _To."_ Ruffnut stared at him for a second before her jaw dropped open and she got this weird look on her face as everyone else quickly got up from their respective seats and quickly moved to get her away from him.

However was stopped by Skye who broke the eerie tension by getting up from her seat and going to sit in Hiccup's lap, startling him somewhat as he shifted his attention to her.

 _His dragon characteristics are beginning to manifest._ Skye thought as she looked into his moss green eyes and noted that the pupils were slitted and the area around them was glowing softly in the light of the pit fire.

 _"Shhh."_ She said as she lay her head on his shoulder and began to softly hum. The sound of her voice soothing her mate's frayed nerves. Calming him enough for his eyes to go back to normal and the others to breathe a sigh of relief before each took their leave of the club house.

Leaving Hiccup and Skye together for just a bit longer before Hiccup excused himself to go about his duties.


	27. Chapter 27

Snotlout stood on the deck of Darius's ship just like he had for the past few weeks, his dark eyes watching as Darius paced back and forth before him.

"Are you sure that Hiccup doesn't suspect a thing?"

"It really doesn't matter if he does. He hasn't caught me or been able to follow me just yet. And if he does manage to do so- we just need to make it look like you've taken me hostage."

"Hn." Darius hummed as he stopped his pacing. "You've really thought this out huh?" Of course he didn't bother to question the Viking's sanity because he was _obviously_ insane to be double crossing his future chieftain and helping to plan his 'mate's' disappearance.

Snotlout shrugged his shoulders. Not really bothering to answer. Because he didn't really care one way or the other.

Darius hummed again, the gears in his head turning so quickly that he was becoming dizzy. The plan, when the dragon rider had first approached him had been simple. Mainly due to the fact that all of his focus had been on capturing the Nightfury and finally killing Hiccup.

However upon hearing the Viking out, and of course learning that there was a human/dragon hybrid living among the dragon riders- and that said hybrid was not only a female but pregnant.

He'd basically almost began doing his happy _I'm-in-the-money_ dance upon realizing just how many people would love to get their hands on the creature.

She could after all be used for various things and while he dealt mostly in dragons and dragon related stuff, he supposed that he could try something new. Like selling the hybrid to the highest bidder after spending some time breaking her in. After all it simply wouldn't do for said girl to be able to BBQ her new owners or rip them to shreds. That was no way to make money.

And with her being pregnant at the moment, his coin would only increase once she gave birth.

"Have you figured out how we can capture her?" Darius asked eagerly. Snotlout thought for a second before replying,

"She has a tendency to disappear for a few hours everyday or so."

"Oh? Where?"

"Somewhere into the woods."

"Does she spend her time hunting?"

"Dunno. I haven't come across any random fires or animal carcasses when I try to follow her." Snotlout said with a small frown, wondering if Skye was building a nest or something since that was what pregnant dragon's did.

"Hn. Strange." Darius muttered as Snotlout thinned his lips and slowly nodded his head in agreement. Yes, it was strange. But he had yet to see stranger.

"I have to get back." Snotlout said after a moment or two of silence causing the dragon hunter to blink at him.

"Oh right. Go on then."

Snotlout nodded his head and then turned and moved over to the dragon that he had rode out to sea on and climbed up on it's back. Not realizing that he had finally been spotted betraying his friends.

 _A storm was coming that will cost him greatly_ , thought Astrid darkly as she turned her dragon around and headed back the way that she had come. Her mind going over everything that Hiccup had told her in secret several nights ago when she had caught him visiting the dragon's pins after lights out.

To be perfectly honest with herself, she had never truly believed that someone like Snotlout would be so petty that he would dare to betray the dragon riders. The moment that she returned to Dragon's Edge, she would have to wait for Hiccup to return to the keep and grab him so that she could tell him all that she had seen.

On one hand- it would cause trouble. And possibly either the exile or death of someone that had once been one of their own but rules were rules and if you were smart you didn't fuck with the chieftain or his heir. It simply wasn't done. Mainly because it was basically like committing suicide but still the point stands.

"Oh Hiccup isn't going to be happy about this." Astrid muttered to herself as Stormfly flew closer to Dragon's Edge. Stormfly chirped in agreement to her human's words as she thought of how she could approach Toothless to speak with him of the traitor.

He would undoubtedly be as upset as his human if not more so since he was more or less acting as their Queen mother's personal dragon guard when he was on the island.

And then there was Hookfang to consider.

Had she known of her human's actions? From the fact that he hadn't been riding her when she and her human had spotted him among the dragon hunter's her answer was leaning more towards 'no'. And if that was indeed the case she would need to speak to the Queen mother immediately about having the dragon's life spared from ruin due to her human's foolhardy actions.


	28. Chapter 28

**Let's not be so quick to write off/kill Snotlout.**

 **There is a reason/method to his madness I swear.**

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Family.

It was one of the rare things in life that Snotlout actually cared for.

His dragon, Hookfang. The rest of the dragon rider's an their dragons, each one were mere extension's of the already formed bond he shared with his blood kin.

Now here was a not so well known fact about his family- his blood kin.

He and Hiccup were cousin's by marriage.

Hiccup's father was linked to Snotlout's father via marriage to Stoick's adopted sister, Snotlout's mother. Their family creed was this. Family, friends, home, hearth- We shall shelter, we shall protect- _We shall honor or suffer death._ These were the things held most sacred to both Hiccup and Snotlout.

So much so that they would go to incredible lengths just to protect each of their family with their honor and their lives.

Which led to Snotlout's current predicament. It had been all Hiccup's idea. Mad man that he was, he had known that they needed to take out the dragon hunters sooner rather than later. And as such he had approached Snotlout about three months ago with an insane plan to have Snotlout act as if he were betraying the dragon rider's so that he could act as Hiccup's spy.

Of course he knew that the hunters weren't stupid (not totally anyways) they all had at least _half_ a weirdly wired brain between them all that kind of reminded him of Tuffnut and Ruffnut. They seemed to have that crazy dash of insanity coupled with a reasonable side of sanity going for them.

Hiccup knew this.

And that was in part what made them so particularly easy to manipulate and exploit. Though Snotlout didn't mind all that much being chosen to be the 'bad guy' of this particular plan. He was after all one of the shadiest Vikings among them, couple that with his past history of hating Hiccup as a kid and it was fairly easy for people to misunderstand/misinterpret his motives whenever he did something screwy.

He just hated the fact that there were so many new variables in the mix that the plan hadn't been totally complete before Hiccup had approached him again and told him to put things into motion.

Snotlout suspected that Skye's presence at Dragon's Edge, along with her current condition had had something to do with Hiccup's sudden decision to see the dragon hunters destroyed.

Not that Snotlout could blame him any.

He had never had a girl that he had courted seriously, nor a wife like Hiccup now did. Nor did he understand the complex anxieties and fears that went with Hiccup's new relationship as well as his worries over Skye's condition.

But he had his own worries and fears for his cousin and his mate and their child/children's safety. Though he would never really admit it to Hiccup or anyone else.

So when he had finally put the plan into motion to help destroy the dragon hunter's, he'd hated mentioning Skye. He had absolutely _loathed_ bringing her into things. Especially the knowledge of her condition as well as her relationship with his younger cousin.

But it was what had caused the dragon hunters to finally trust him, if only a little bit.

They used his knowledge to plan out a way to get to Skye and the other dragons while he used his knowledge of their plans to plan his own sort of retaliation in an attempt to prevent them from getting to Skye.

So far his tricks and traps were working fairly well.

Hiccup had told him the last time that they had met that he had killed at least a dozen dragon hunters trapped in one of his traps. Using Toothless's plasma blasts to incinerate the men while alive so that they couldn't escape and return to the main ship and tell of what had happened.

Snotlout himself had been fairly busy, sneaking around, passing encoded secret messages to Hiccup when he could while 'borrowing' one or two wild dragons here and there to help him patrol the island for straggler hunter's.

To date his known kills were a staggering thirty something.

But that didn't matter.

He needed to return to the island and pass on his latest encoded secret message to Hiccup and then go see Hookfang and go out to check his newer traps. Part of him wishing that he would find Darius and his right hand man in one of the latest traps so that he could kill them and just be done with it.

It would certainly make things so much simpler.

Kill Darius and his right hand, free the dragon's on the ships, sink the ships... See easy.

However life was rarely as easy as that, and things rarely went according to anyone's plans.

Snotlout landed the wild dragon just a little ways away from the keep and patted the beast on the head, taking a moment to thank it for it's help recently and speaking to it in low tones as he gave it an appreciative petting for it's hard work before he then stepped back and let the dragon meander off.

Turning on his heel he began to silently wander through the dense under brush of the woods and got almost to the keep when he spotted Skye in a small clearing just up ahead and paused. Up until now he'd been keeping his distance for the sake of his 'mission' and had never really spent any time with or spoken to the hybrid.

However seeing her out here in the woods all alone- without her two bodyguard- alarmed him somewhat. Especially since the dragon hunters were getting ready for an all out strike against the dragon riders. And Skye didn't need to be left alone for _any_ length of time that could allow someone to nab her.

Deciding that it was time that he spend some quality time in his younger cousin's wife's presence- Snotlout stepped out of the tree line and into plain view, the sound of his approaching footfalls causing the hybrid girl to turn her head and look at him.

"You shouldn't be out here alone." He said, careful to keep his tone from being too intimidating or forceful since he wasn't sure how she would respond to that.

She blinked at him and then smiled as if amused by his words before stating, "I am more than capable of caring for myself."

To which he shook his head slowly and said, "Nu-uh. Hiccup would have a conniption and then some if anything happened to you or the little one."

The raven haired beauty tilted her head to the side a little bit as she considered him for a moment as he stared back at her. He didn't bother fooling himself into thinking that she couldn't smell the other human's scents on his skin. Nor did he bother trying to defend himself when she finally said lightly, "You've been very busy of late." Almost as if she wasn't exactly sure how to say what was needed.

"You can smell them on me can't you?" Despite the fact that he hadn't been touched by any of the hunters of late and made sure to bathe when he was so that their lingering scents on his skin wouldn't upset the dragons of the keep when he was nearby. He knew that even though she was only part dragon, she likely had enough enhanced senses to be able to _smell_ them on him. Especially since he hadn't bathed just yet.

"I can." She admitted, unashamed of that little fact before simply saying, "And I believe that you have your reasons for doing what your doing."

He did. But he wasn't getting into it with her otherwise Hiccup would skin him alive.

His lack of response seemed to be the only confirmation she needed as she breathed deep and then tipped her head back so that she was looking up at the sky, one small hand resting lightly on the slight swell of her stomach before she said, "You know. In ancient times dragon's were keepers of mankind's knowledge. Some even believed that we were able to see things far, far into the future. And as such our knowledge was deemed needed to help guide man through harsh and difficult times."

He chewed his bottom lip for a moment as he mulled over her words, a small frown marring his features before he finally hesitantly asked, "Do you know what will happen? Do you see?"

"My eyes see much, cousin of my mate." Skye said as she glanced at him from underneath her lashes. She could plainly see the look of utter shock on his face and almost laughed at the slightly comical display before he seemed to reign it in and masked his features before asking her in a slightly anxious tone,

"Then tell me that everything works out. The plan. You and Hiccup. Tell me so that I know that I'm doing the right thing by playing this part."

Skye looked at him for a moment more before sighing again.

He was asking for the impossible. She could not lie to him. Nor could she tell him that things would totally work out as they were supposed too. All she could really say was, "I see much love in your heart for your family and friends. But I also see more sacrifice than you are meant to make. I cannot tell you that things will work out completely as you would like. Or even may wish. But things will happen exactly as they were meant too." Then reaching out her hand to him, she waiting until he grasped her hand in his and smiled as she turned and all but began to drag him through the woods along side her while saying, "Try not to worry or dwell on such matter so much. If you do they will inevitably destroy you- Now, I've been trying to think of possible names for my little one. I wonder if you may have any thoughts on that?"


	29. Chapter 29

Skye and Snotlout were still speaking of baby names when they finally returned to the keep to find Hiccup leaning up against a tree with his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes closed.

His mind going over the past hour's events.

He'd been trying to avoid Astrid ever since she had returned from patrol and he had overheard her telling the others about catching Snotlout on the dragon hunter's ship making some sort of deal or something.

 _That stupid, nosy girl is a damned menace!_ He thought darkly.

Astrid couldn't keep herself out of damn trouble.

And while that may be so, on the one hand he wanted to venomously deny everything should Astrid or the others find him, after all Snotlout was his cousin and family honor meant everything.

And on the other hand he knew that their plan to crush the dragon hunter's once and for all, needed to be pushed into the final phase- however he was hesitating to do what needed to be done because of his ties to Snotlout.

Opening his eyes at hearing the familiar sound of Skye's voice mixed with Snotlouts baritone, Hiccup pushed away from the tree that he'd been resting against as the two appeared together out of the woods. Skye more or less dragging Snotlout along behind her as the two of them went back and forth.

Hiccup felt his lips curve up a little bit upon seeing the two safe, especially when he heard Snotlout say indignantly. "Hey! Hookfang is a good baby name. It's strong and manly and it's a great deal more creative that Hiccup!" To which Hiccup took a moment to chuckle before he decided to reply to Snotlout's rant before things got out of hand.

His mate was starting to get that overly familiar crazed look her eyes.

You know the one. The one that usually has you backpedaling really fast just to avoid losing a limb or two. Especially after you've said or done something incredibly stupid.

"You're right. Hookfang is a good baby name... _for a dragon_." He said as Skye all but came to a stop and looked in his direction. "And while my child/children will be part dragon, they will also be human which means that we need to stick to human names. So let's try something like... Fang or Crusher for a boy. And something nice and cute for a girl. Like, oh say, Helen or Star."

"Oh I like that! Fang and Star. Both can be used as male _and_ female names." Skye said excitedly, causing both Hiccup and Snotlout to look at her strangely for a moment and blink before Hiccup said,

"Skye, I know that Fang and Star are both very nice names and all but you are not naming our first son Star."

"Oh?"

"Yes. Because having a kid named Star would embarrassing not only me but for him as well. Just think of how he'd be teased!" Hiccup said, attempting to reason with his mate as he vividly recalled his childhood and how much others had teased and tormented him for being named Hiccup.

"Really?" Skye said in a suddenly overly sweet tone that had Snotlout quickly backing away from Hiccup as he anxiously chewed on his bottom lip to keep himself from laughing as Hiccup got this funny, _What the hell_? look on his face and took a moment to look between him and Skye. All while calculating his chances at running to freedom.

"Don't do it Hiccup." Snotlout breathed in a whispery tone so as not to get Skye's attention solely focused on him. He may not have much going on in his life at the moment, but that by no means meant that he wished to die here at the hands of an irritated/pissed female.

Especially when said female was only half human.

For all he knew she might try to eat him once she killed him to get rid of the evidence or something.

However Hiccup wasn't listening to him, he was too busy trying to figure out how to calm Skye and save his first born son from a life of being called Star. Cause that really was a girl's name and no boy deserved to be saddled with it. However Skye had some very different idea's. "Well I think Star is a nice name for a boy. After all without stars we would have no light in the sky aside from the moon. They are not only pretty to look at but light and guide us! Our son should be honored to be named after them!"

Hiccup opened and then closed his mouth a few times before finally managing to say, "Yeah okay. Those are all valid points. Now here's mine, Star is a girl's name!"

"Well, since you feel that way...then I'll just name him Fluffy." Skye said with a huff as Hiccup all but gaped at her for several heartbeats before practically roaring.

"You will not name our son such a thing! What would the other Vikings think?"

"They would think their lucky stars that their _mother_ didn't have this same argument with their idiot _father_ and name them Fluffy!"

Snotlout had to bite the inside of his cheek just to keep himself from laughing at the dismayed look on his poor cousin's face as the man stared down his mate in his typical frustrated fashion before bellowing, "You are not naming my son Fluffy!"

"Oh yes I am!"

"No you aren't!"

"I'm the one who's pregnant, I get the final say! And I say his name will either be _Fluffy_ or _Star_!" Skye shouted.

"Well I'm his father and _I_ say no!" Hiccup shouted back. Causing Skye to let out a loud rumbling growl in warning. Her mate had better watch his step or their first born son would wind up named Fluffybottom Cotton-tail. Or something equally ridiculous. Just to embarrass he and his father both.

After all, just because their child would have a ridiculous name didn't make him have any less potential as a Viking warrior. Although the name would definitely help others to underestimate him. And while she wasn't terribly keen on naming their first son Fluffy like she had said she would, that in no way whatsoever meant that she would give up on the name Star.

After all stars were bright, lovely little lights that existed millions and millions of miles away.

They deserved to have someone named in their honor. She thought as Hiccup made this weird hand motion as if he wished to throttle her.

 _He probably would if I wasn't carrying his young_ , She thought to herself as Snotlout grabbed him and pulled him back from her before he could wrap his hands around her neck. Not that he actually would. She knew the man far better than he seemed to know himself.

And physically harming a woman simply for frustrating him, simply wasn't in him.


End file.
